I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1885 
To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 
to eliminate the use of valid court orders to secure lockup of status 
offenders, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 4, 2017 
Mr. CA´RDENAS (for himself, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. 
GUTIE´RREZ, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, 
Ms. MOORE, Ms. NORTON, Mr. VARGAS, and Mr. GRIJALVA) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 
Act of 1974 to eliminate the use of valid court orders 
to secure lockup of status offenders, and for other pur-
poses. 
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 ‘‘Prohibiting Detention 
of Youth Status Offenders Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION OF STATUS OFFENDERS. 
Section 223 of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 
Prevention Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5633) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)(11)— 
(A) by striking ‘‘shall’’ the first place it 
appears; 
(B) in subparagraph (A)— 
(i) in clause (i), by inserting ‘‘and’’ at 
the end; 
(ii) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end; 
(iii) by striking clause (iii); and 
(iv) in the matter following clause (iii) 
by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 
(C) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 
‘‘and’’ at the end; and 
(D) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(C) if a court determines the juvenile 
should be placed in a secure detention facility 
or correctional facility for violating an order de-
scribed in subparagraph (A)(ii)— 
‘‘(i) the court shall issue a written 
order that— 
‘‘(I) identifies the valid court 
order that has been violated; 
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‘‘(II) specifies the factual basis 
for determining that there is reason-
able cause to believe that the juvenile 
has violated such order; 
‘‘(III) includes findings of fact to 
support a determination that there is 
no appropriate less restrictive alter-
native available to placing the juvenile 
in such a facility, with due consider-
ation to the best interest of the juve-
nile; 
‘‘(IV) specifies the length of time, 
not to exceed 3 days, that the juvenile 
may remain in a secure detention fa-
cility or correctional facility, and in-
cludes a plan for the juvenile’s release 
from such facility; and 
‘‘(V) may not be renewed or ex-
tended; and 
‘‘(ii) the court may not issue a second 
or subsequent order described in clause (i) 
relating to a juvenile, unless the juvenile 
violates a valid court order after the date 
on which the court issues an order de-
scribed in clause (i); 
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