This hearing of the Subcommittee on Crime will come to order.
Today is the second day of our hearings focused on juvenile justice reform.
Yesterday we looked at some of the Justice Department's proposals for improving and strengthening the federal juvenile justice system. Today we consider how the federal government might support the promising approaches being pursued by States and localities to ensure meaningful consequences for juvenile wrongdoing. Our discussion and debate this morning is not an academic exercise. Violent juvenile crime is at nearly unprecedented levels, and there is a substantial likelihood that the juvenile crime rate will climb well into the next decade. And at the same time that we face the prospect of increased juvenile crime, juvenile justice systems around the country are overburdened and, therefore, unable to ensure appropriate sanctions for nonviolent offenses.