Juvenile Fee Transparency Act

To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 to require States to report on the administration of certain fees. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Juvenile Fee Transparency Act 2. State plans Section 223(a) of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 ( 42 U.S.C. 5633(a) (1) in paragraph (27), by striking and (2) in paragraph (28), by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and (3) by adding at the end the following: (29) provide information on— (A) whether courts or any other responsible governmental agency in the State collect payments for— (i) probation or supervision; (ii) diversion programming, including informal adjustment, informal probation, consent decrees, or other alternatives to formal juvenile justice processing and adjudication; (iii) placement, including detention at a ranch, camp, secure incarceration, and nonsecure post-adjudication placements or group homes; (iv) court administrative costs; (v) evaluation or testing, including drug and substance abuse testing and mental health testing; (vi) fines, assessments, or fees imposed only when a juvenile is adjudicated delinquent; (vii) expungement or sealing of juvenile records; (viii) representation by a public defender or a court-appointed counsel; (ix) victim restitution; and (x) electronic monitoring, GPS monitoring, or home detention; (B) the dollar amount ordered to be paid by the court or other governmental agency in charging and collecting the fee in the previous fiscal year for each of the categories of payments described in subparagraph (A); (C) the dollar amount recovered in the previous fiscal year under each of the categories of payments described in subparagraph (A); (D) the dollar amount still outstanding as of the end of the previous fiscal year for each of the categories of payments described in subparagraph (A); (E) whether juveniles or their legal guardians receive a hearing to determine their ability to pay any charges under the categories of payments described in subparagraph (A); and (F) whether juveniles or their legal guardians, during any such hearings described in subparagraph (E), have a right to counsel for such hearings. . 3. Report Not later than 1 year after the data reported under the amendments made by section 2 is made available to the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Comptroller General of the United States, in coordination with the Administrator, shall submit to Congress a report on— (1) differences in the administration and collection of fees across jurisdictions, across racial demographics, and across income levels, including fee amounts, collection costs, and the use of hearings to determine the ability to pay of juveniles or their legal guardians; (2) the extent to which differences in the administration and collection of fees across jurisdictions affects or is associated with differences in the rates and types of juvenile involvement in the justice system and rates of recidivism across those jurisdictions; and (3) the extent to which the failure to pay fees by juveniles or their legal guardians results in detention or confinement not otherwise ordered, exclusion from diversion programming or failure to expunge or seal a juvenile record.

Summary: Juvenile Fee Transparency Act This bill amends the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 to require a state that receives a formula grant under the juvenile justice and delinquency prevention program to provide certain information on juvenile justice fees. Specifically, the bill requires a state's juvenile justice plan to provide information on: state- or court-imposed fines and fees on a juvenile or guardian of a juvenile in the juvenile justice system; the total amount of fines and fees that are imposed, paid, and outstanding; and the use of hearings to determine ability to pay and the right to counsel during such hearings. The Government Accountability Office must report to Congress on juvenile justice fees, including the: (1) differences across jurisdictions, racial demographics, and income levels; (2) impact of such differences on juvenile involvement in the system and recidivism; and (3) consequences of failing to pay such fees.