I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6361 
To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 
to establish a demonstration grant program for nonprofit organizations 
to partner with juvenile justice agencies to monitor juvenile facilities 
and provide youth in the facilities and their families with increased 
positive engagement in the system. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 
Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 
A BILL 
To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 
Act of 1974 to establish a demonstration grant program 
for nonprofit organizations to partner with juvenile jus-
tice agencies to monitor juvenile facilities and provide 
youth in the facilities and their families with increased 
positive engagement in the system. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Family Justice Act 
of 2010’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) According to the National Center for Men-
tal Health and Juvenile Justice, the successful reha-
bilitation of youth in the juvenile justice system, and 
their sustained reintegration into the community rely 
upon the mutual support of juvenile justice systems 
and families in the accomplishment of their goals. 
(2) Involving families benefits the youth, the 
family, the juvenile justice system, and the commu-
nity. 
(3) Valid information and consistent commu-
nication between families and juvenile justice facili-
ties reduces confusion, frustration, and disappoint-
ment. 
(4) Training of juvenile justice personnel on the 
importance of involving families can help the former 
better understand the family perspective and the po-
tential opportunities for families to be educated 
about the system, its processes and protocols. 
(5) Families working together with juvenile jus-
tice systems can improve outcomes for justice-in-
volved youth with mental health issues. 
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT
OF DEMONSTRATION GRANT 
PROGRAM.—Title II of the Juvenile Justice and Delin-
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quency Prevention Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5611 et seq.) 
is amended— 
(1) by redesignating part (F) as part (G), and 
(2) by inserting after part (E) the following: 
‘‘PART F—ESTABLISHING INCREASED FAMILY EN-
GAGEMENT 
AND 
INDEPENDENT 
MONI-
TORING PROGRAMS 
‘‘SEC. 271. GRANT PROGRAM. 
‘‘(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this section are 
the following: 
‘‘(1) To strengthen the relationships between— 
‘‘(A) individuals who are employed by juve-
nile justice or adult criminal justice agencies, 
including individuals employed at juvenile de-
tention or corrections facilities or adult jails or 
prisons; and 
‘‘(B) individuals who are not employed in 
the agencies or facilities, but are involved with 
the juvenile justice or adult criminal justice sys-
tem, particularly youth held in juvenile deten-
tion or corrections facilities or adult jails or 
prisons and their families. 
‘‘(2) To create a process through which admin-
istrators and staff at such facilities engage in a dia-
logue with individuals the facilities incarcerate, in-
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cluding youth in juvenile detention or corrections fa-
cilities or adult jails or prisons and families of these 
youth, as well as other community-based stake-
holders, to collect feedback and input about the fa-
cilities’ policies, procedures, and practices. 
‘‘(3) To ensure that the feedback and input 
from youth in these facilities, their families, and 
community-based stakeholders are integrated into 
the facilities’ policies, procedures, and practices. 
‘‘(4) To allow families of youth incarcerated in 
a facility and community-based stakeholders access 
to the facility and the youth in order to conduct an 
initial assessment of the facility, to assess which 
policies and practices help families support youth’s 
rehabilitation prior to, during, and after their stay 
in a facility, and as well as to monitor the facility’s 
progress towards recommendations made by a panel 
described in subsection (b)(1). 
‘‘(b) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.— 
‘‘(1) FAMILY
ENGAGEMENT
DEMONSTRATION 
GRANTS.—The Administrator may make grants in 
each fiscal year to local or statewide nonprofit orga-
nizations proven to be family oriented and based in 
best practices to establish panels to monitor juvenile 
detention and corrections facilities in which youth 
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are held and provide youth in those facilities and 
their family members with the ability to assist in the 
development of policies, procedures, and practices in 
these facilities to improve outcomes for youth and 
better prepare families to support youth’s rehabilita-
tion and transition back into the community. 
‘‘(2) 
GEOGRAPHIC
DISTRIBUTION.—Grants 
shall be made with preference given to those organi-
zations that have a demonstrable track record of 
working with families of incarcerated youth and in-
corporating family input into their decisionmaking 
processes. In making grants under this section, the 
Administrator shall, to the extent practicable, ensure 
that a grant is made to one nonprofit organization 
in each State. 
‘‘(c) APPLICATIONS.— 
‘‘(1) SUBMISSIONS.—Each local or statewide 
nonprofit organization that desires a grant under 
this section shall submit an application, in partner-
ship with State or local juvenile justice and criminal 
justice agencies, courts, or juvenile detention or cor-
rections facilities or adult jails or prisons, to the Ad-
ministrator in such manner, and accompanied by 
such information, as the Administrator may require. 
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‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—Each application submitted 
under paragraph (1) shall, at a minimum, include 
the following: 
‘‘(A) A description of the organization’s ex-
perience working with youth involved in the ju-
venile justice or adult criminal justice system 
and their families. 
‘‘(B) A description of the organization’s 
approach to family engagement in the juvenile 
justice or adult criminal justice system, includ-
ing the organization’s use of parent advocates. 
‘‘(C) A list of the juvenile detention or cor-
rectional facilities or adult jails and prisons 
holding youth that the panel will monitor. 
‘‘(D) A description of the State or local 
partner with which the monitoring panel will 
work and which has the authority to make the 
changes in the facilities listed under subpara-
graph (C). 
‘‘(E) Assurances that the organization will 
create a monitoring panel that shall include— 
‘‘(i) two representatives from each 
of— 
‘‘(I) family members of youth 
currently incarcerated or incarcerated 
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within the last 2 years in the par-
ticular monitored facility; 
‘‘(II) youth currently incarcer-
ated or incarcerated within the last 2 
years in the particular monitored fa-
cility or a youth advocate who is in 
regular contact with the facility; and 
‘‘(III) 
nonprofit 
organizations 
that provide assistance to youth in-
volved in the juvenile justice or adult 
criminal justice systems or their fami-
lies; and 
‘‘(ii) one representative from each 
of— 
‘‘(I) a public defender’s office or 
court-appointed private attorney rep-
resenting youth in one of the jurisdic-
tions served by a facility that the 
panel will monitor; 
‘‘(II) the State Attorney Gen-
eral’s office or a prosecutor’s office in 
one of the jurisdictions served by a fa-
cility that the panel will monitor; 
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‘‘(III) a representative from the 
State Advisory Group (SAG) or a 
JJDPA State staff representative; 
‘‘(IV) the family liaison for men-
tal health services or a State or local 
children’s mental health provider; 
‘‘(V) the Governor’s office; 
‘‘(VI) a State or local child wel-
fare agency; and 
‘‘(VII) the family liaison for spe-
cial education or a State or local edu-
cation agency representative. 
‘‘(F) Assurances that administrators of the 
State or local juvenile justice and criminal jus-
tice agencies, courts, juvenile detention or cor-
rections facilities, or adult jails or prisons with 
which the nonprofit is partnering will create a 
facility implementation team that will include 
two individuals employed by each facility being 
monitored who have the authority to make 
changes recommended by the panel. 
‘‘(G) Assurances that the applicant, as 
part of its application, has consulted, or will 
within 30 days of being notified of an award 
will consult, with the State Advisory Group 
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(SAG) or the JJDPA State staff to discuss how 
the activities of the monitoring panel can sup-
port and strengthen the State’s JJDPA compli-
ance monitoring activities. 
‘‘(d) USES OF FUNDS.—Grants received under this 
section shall be used to ensure meaningful input from 
youth in juvenile detention and corrections facilities and 
adult jails and prisons, their families, and community- 
based stakeholders by providing funds— 
‘‘(1) to allow the monitoring panel to conduct 
an initial assessment and continued monitoring of 
the facility to determine how the facility collects, 
analyzes, and integrates the input from youth in the 
facility, their families, and other community-based 
stakeholders into the facility’s policies, practices, 
and procedures, including by— 
‘‘(A) conducting confidential interviews 
with youth and staff in the facility for the pur-
pose of evaluating the facility for the purposes 
above; and 
‘‘(B) making unannounced visits to the fa-
cility to observe and assess conditions of con-
finement; 
‘‘(2) to allow the monitoring panel to make rec-
ommendations to the facility implementation team 
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on how to integrate input from youth, their families, 
and community-based stakeholders into the facility’s 
policies, procedures, and practices, including— 
‘‘(A) creating more access to the facility 
for outside groups, including— 
‘‘(i) allowing additional community- 
based organizations that work with youth 
or individuals to conduct visits to the facil-
ity; 
‘‘(ii) providing office space in the fa-
cility for entities that act in the interest of 
youth in the facility, including community- 
based advocacy groups, guardians ad litem, 
and public defender offices; or 
‘‘(iii) assigning a court-appointed at-
torney to be available in the facilities on a 
regular basis for youth to speak with about 
their grievances with the facility; 
‘‘(B) creating a support group for families 
of youth in the facility; 
‘‘(C) improving communications between 
facility administrators and staff and families, 
and encouraging dialogue between these individ-
uals and staff in the facility (such as officers, 
medical professionals, and educators) by— 
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‘‘(i) providing regular updates on indi-
vidual youth’s status and progress while in 
the facility; 
‘‘(ii) integrating family input into the 
process of making decisions regarding 
youth, such as medical, mental health, or 
educational decisions; 
‘‘(iii) creating a youth and family liai-
son position or point of contact for youth 
and their families to help advocate for the 
youth and their families; 
‘‘(iv) providing an orientation for 
youth and families to the facility, the pro-
grams, and the formal grievance system of 
the facility that includes information on 
how youth and families can express prob-
lems, questions, or comments; and 
‘‘(v) ensuring that youth and their 
families receive information on the re-
search on the consequences of juvenile jus-
tice system involvement, including the 
long-term effects of this involvement and 
how it can affect a child later in life; 
‘‘(D) improving visitation and contact poli-
cies with youth in the facilities, including— 
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‘‘(i) reducing restrictions on who can 
visit, including allowing visitation from in-
dividuals outside the youth’s immediate 
family that provide positive support to the 
youth, such as siblings, godparents, a par-
ent’s unmarried partner, aunts, uncles, 
cousins, nieces, nephews, mentors, teach-
ers, coaches, and pastors; 
‘‘(ii) modifying or extending visitation 
time to include additional hours or days of 
the week to facilitate visitation with youth; 
and 
‘‘(iii) reducing transportation barriers 
for individuals to visit the facility, particu-
larly if the facility is not located near pub-
lic transit or near the communities from 
which the youth in the facility are referred; 
and 
‘‘(E) ensuring that quality and effective 
after care plans are established that reduce re-
cidivism and help youth successfully reintegrate 
into their communities; and 
‘‘(3) to provide funds to the facility to imple-
ment the recommendations of the monitoring panel, 
only to be available to the facility after— 
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‘‘(A) the monitoring panel has presented a 
publicly available written report with its rec-
ommendations to the facility; 
‘‘(B) the monitoring panel and the facility 
implementation team meet to discuss the rec-
ommendations and the facility implementation 
team have a meaningful opportunity to provide 
input into the recommendations; and 
‘‘(C) the monitoring panel and the facility 
implementation team agree by a vote on which 
recommendations to fund, in order for any 
funds to be spent by the facility to implement 
a recommendation, the use of those funds must 
be supported by the votes of two-thirds of indi-
viduals on the monitoring panel and the facility 
implementation team, and by the vote of at 
least one individual as follows: 
‘‘(i) A representative from the facility 
implementation team. 
‘‘(ii) A representative from the moni-
toring panel. 
‘‘(iii) A representative from the moni-
toring panel who is a youth or family 
member. 
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‘‘(e) FUNDS FOR EVALUATION.—The Administrator 
shall reserve 10 percent of the amount made available to 
carry out this section for the purpose of evaluating such 
demonstrations conducted under this section and issuing 
a report describing the approaches and aspects of the dem-
onstrations that the Administrator determines to be most 
effective and appropriate for fulfilling the purposes of ju-
venile justice detention and corrections facilities and adult 
jails and prisons, integrating input from youth in the fa-
cilities and their families in the facility’s polices, proce-
dures, and practices, taking into account the demo-
graphics of the various localities to be served.’’. 
(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 
299 of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 
Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5671) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)— 
(A) in the heading by striking ‘‘PARTS 
C AND E’’ and inserting ‘‘PARTS C, E, 
AND F’’, and 
(B) in paragraph (2) by striking 
‘‘parts C and E’’ and inserting ‘‘parts C, 
E, and F’’, 
(2) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-
section (e), and 
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(3) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS
FOR 
PART F.—There are authorized to be appropriated to 
carry out part F such sums as may be necessary for fiscal 
years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.’’. 
Æ 
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