[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 440 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 440

 Expressing support for the designation of October 2023 as ``National 
                     Youth Justice Action Month''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 30, 2023

 Mr. Whitehouse submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing support for the designation of October 2023 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 juvenile 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 and Federal laws that prohibit youth under 
the age of 18 from taking on major adult responsibilities such as voting, 
jury duty, and military service;

Whereas youth who are placed under the commitment of the juvenile court system 
        often do not receive access to age-appropriate services and education 
        and remain far from their families, which increases 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 nonviolent 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 
        Delinquency Prevention of the Department of Justice demonstrating 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 future crimes than youth retained in the juvenile court system;
Whereas youth of color, youth with disabilities, and youth with mental health 
        issues are disproportionately represented 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 prisons where they are significantly 
        more likely to be physically and sexually assaulted and often placed in 
        solitary confinement;
Whereas youth sentenced as adults receive an adult criminal record that hinders 
        future education and employment opportunities;
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 participate in Youth Justice 
        Action Month to increase public awareness of the issues facing youth 
        transferred to the adult criminal justice system 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 Senate--
            (1) acknowledges that the collateral consequences normally 
        applied in the adult criminal justice 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 the continued 
        implementation of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 
        Prevention Act of 1974, as amended by the Juvenile Justice 
        Reform Act of 2018, in a manner in keeping with the spirit and 
        intent of the law.
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