Senators Introduce the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Act of 2009
On March 24, 2009, Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ranking Committee
Member Arlen Specter (R-PA), Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Senator
Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced S.678, a bill
to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of
1974 (JJDPA). The JJDPA expired in September 2007, but has been
maintained through continuing resolutions while Congress considers
reauthorizing the legislation.
THE JJDPA:
- provides a juvenile planning and advisory system in every state;
- funds delinquency prevention programs to improve state and local
juvenile justice systems;
- operates the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency.
S. 678 is similar to the bill
that was introduced and passed the House Judiciary Committee last year, but contains three important changes.
First, the bill phases out over the next three years the exception that
allows states to hold status offenders who are charged with noncriminal
offenses in jail or secured confinement. Second, the bill requires
that youths awaiting trial in criminal
court be kept out of adult facilities. In the limited circumstances
under which placement in an adult facility is necessary, youths need to
be provided ‘sight and sound’ separation from adults being
held in the facilities. Third, the bill provides
for assessment, referral, and treatment of mental health disorders for
offenders in the juvenile justice system, since the act finds that
prevalence of youth with mental disorders is two to three times higher
in the juvenile justice system.
The reauthorization of the JJDPA is
important to individuals with AD/HD and related disorders
because between 65-100 percent of youth under age 18 in the
juvenile justice system have a diagnosable mental illness, and up to 20
percent have a serious mental illness, according to the National
Center on Mental Health and Juvenile Justice. A study conducted by
the National
Bureau of Economic Research in 2006 found that youth with AD/HD
are more likely to be arrested and convicted after arrest.
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health
Law has assembled a section-by-section summary of the JJDPA. CHADD signed the following letter of support
for S.678.
Updated May 22, 2009
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