Urge Senate to Oppose Harmful Juvenile Justice Bill

(May 12, 1999)

For the past 25 years, Congress has been protecting America's children from the dangers of adult jails. A generation ago, children--including those picked up for running away andshoplifting--were routinely housed in adult jails. Studies in the early 1970s found that children in adult jails often were subject to rape, sodomy, and assault by both inmates and prisonstaff. A number of children committed suicide. Some were murdered outright.

Congress responded by enacting the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) of 1974 to protect children from adult inmates and untrained staff. Under the Act and its subsequent renewals, states can receive funds under a formula grant as long as they comply with the following four protections:

• Children must be removed from adult facilities in most cases, with exceptions for rural areas.
• Children who are placed in adult facilities must be separated from adult inmates by both "sight and sound."
• Children who are arrested for running away, skipping school, or other noncriminal (status) offenses are to be placed in community facilities, not jails or prisons, and NEVER in adult jails or prisons.
• If disproportionate confinement of minority youth is found, states must address it.
  

Nearly every state complies with the Act and receives funding. In December 1996, the Justice Department revised its rules on implementing the Act to give states, especially rural areas, more flexibility, while still holding true to the core principles of keeping children and adults apart.

Yet the response by the 106th Congress appears to weaken the core requirements. The Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act (S. 254), which goes far beyond violent offenders, contains a number of controversial provisions that will present dangers for children and does nothing to make guns safer, nothing to make guns less accessible to children, and does nothing to guarantee juvenile crime prevention funding.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has scheduled the Senate to begin debating S. 254 on May 11.

PLEASE CALL OR WRITE YOUR SENATORS AND URGE THEM TO OPPOSE THIS LEGISLATION.

CALL your Senators at (202) 224-3121 (the Capitol Switchboard) and request your Senator's office. Once you are connected, request to speak with the staff person who handles juvenile justice issues. Urge the staff person to make sure the Senator is aware of your concerns:

• 
  S. 254 in its current form contains a number of controversial provisions that will present dangers for children.
• S. 254 weakens core protections for children by placing children at risk of abuse and assault in adult jails.
• S. 254 undermines efforts to address the disproportionate confinement of minority youth. In virtually every state, minority youth are over-represented at every stage of the juvenile justice system and receive disparate treatment. For example, a study in California showed that minority youth consistently received more severe punishments and were more likely to receive jail time than white youth for the same offenses. By removing the current law language, the widespread disparity in treatment would be significantly minimized and current efforts would be seriously undermined.
• S. 254 does not guarantee juvenile crime prevention funding. Nor does it make guns safer or less accessible to children.
  For more information about S.254 or to send a letter, visit CDF's Web site at www.childrensdefense.org/takeaction.

You can review problems contained in the bill in more detail, and you can send a letter or e-mail on CDF's Contact Congress page.

If you have any questions, please contact Elenora Giddings Ivory at (202) 543-1126.