IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 723 
Expressing support for the designation of October 2021 as ‘‘National Youth 
Justice Action Month’’. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 19, 2021 
Mr. CA´RDENAS (for himself, Mr. TRONE, and Mrs. SPARTZ) submitted the fol-
lowing resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
Labor 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing support for the designation of October 2021 as 
‘‘National Youth Justice Action Month’’. 
Whereas the historical role of the juvenile court system is to 
rehabilitate and treat young people while holding them 
accountable and maintaining public safety, and the juve-
nile court system is therefore better equipped to work 
with youth than the adult criminal justice system, which 
is punitive in nature; 
Whereas youth are developmentally different from adults, and 
those differences have been— 
(1) documented by research on the adolescent brain; 
and 
(2) acknowledged by the Supreme Court of the 
United States, State supreme courts, and many State 
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•HRES 723 IH 
and Federal laws that prohibit youth under the age of 18 
from taking on major adult responsibilities such as vot-
ing, jury duty, and military service; 
Whereas youth who are placed under the commitment of the 
juvenile court system are able to access age-appropriate 
services and education and remain closer to their fami-
lies, which reduces the likelihood that those youth will 
commit offenses in the future; 
Whereas, every year in the United States, an estimated 
76,000 youths are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as 
adults, and most of those youth are prosecuted for non-
violent offenses; 
Whereas most laws allowing the prosecution of youth as 
adults were enacted before the publication of research- 
based evidence by the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin-
quency Prevention of the Department of Justice dem-
onstrating that prosecuting youth in adult court actually 
decreases public safety as, on average, youth prosecuted 
in adult court are 34 percent more likely to commit fu-
ture crimes than youth retained in the juvenile court sys-
tem; 
Whereas youth of color, youth with disabilities, and youth 
with mental health issues are disproportionately rep-
resented at all stages of the criminal justice system; 
Whereas it is harmful to public safety and to young people 
in the legal system to confine youth in adult jails or pris-
ons where they are significantly more likely to be phys-
ically and sexually assaulted and often placed in solitary 
confinement; 
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•HRES 723 IH 
Whereas youth sentenced as adults receive an adult criminal 
record that hinders future education and employment op-
portunities; 
Whereas youth who receive extremely long sentences deserve 
an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to grow 
and change; and 
Whereas, in October, people around the United States par-
ticipate in Youth Justice Action Month to increase public 
awareness on the need to protect the constitutional rights 
of youth, establish a minimum age for arresting children, 
remove youth from adult courts and prisons, end the 
practice of sentencing children to life and de facto life 
without parole, and to provide people across the United 
States with an opportunity to develop action-oriented 
events in their communities: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) acknowledges that the collateral con-
sequences normally applied in the adult criminal jus-
tice system should not automatically apply to youth 
arrested for crimes before the age of 18; 
(2) expresses support for the designation of 
‘‘National Youth Justice Action Month’’; 
(3) recognizes and supports the goals and ideals 
of National Youth Justice Action Month; and 
(4) recognizes the importance of and encour-
ages the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 
Prevention to fully implement the Juvenile Justice 
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Reform Act of 2018 in a manner in keeping with the 
spirit and intent of the law. 
Æ 
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