CRER supports giving states more flexibility to meet the four federal mandates regarding how juveniles are treated from the time they enter the system. The strict rigid mandates in place currently make the system less effective, especially in rural areas. Core Requirements to Receive Block Grant Funding Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders. H.R. 1818 still mandates that a public agency make recommendations for the juvenile's needs, but eliminates the requirement that a judge receive the report prior to issuing a valid court order that allows the juvenile to be detained in a lock-up facility overnight. Sight and Sound Separation.
Current law prohibits all contact between juvenile offenders and adult offenders.
The bill also allows adult detention staff to work with juveniles as long as the staff has received special training to work with juvenile offenders. Current law prohibits staff that care for adult offenders from working with juvenile offenders. Disproportionate Minority Incarceration. The bill clarifies that states must not impose numerical standards or quotas in order to meet the federal requirement that states reduce the number of minorities that are incarcerated if it is disproportionate to the general population. A state is termed to have a disproportionate number of minorities incarcerated if the proportion of minorities in the state judicial system exceeds the proportion of minorities in the general population.