“A bill to reauthorize titles II and V of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section amends the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDPA) as follows: (1) expands the definition of "secure facility" to explicitly include any prison (34 U.S.C. 11103(22)); and (2) revises state plan assurances required for formula grant eligibility (34 U.S.C. 11133(a)), including (A) modifications to the state advisory group requirements; (B) elimination of the prior requirement to use not less than 75% of certain funds for promising programs, with such funds now required to be used in accordance with the plan, expansion of allowable programs (e.g., to improve probation departments for youth, incorporate restorative practices, address racial and ethnic disparities, collect socioeconomic data on youth in the system, and support diversion initiatives), and addition of new programs such as those to divert youth pre- or post-arrest; (C) detailed new procedures for the valid court order (VCO) exception to the deinstitutionalization of status offenders requirement—limiting secure detention to 7 days (with no renewal unless a new violation occurs), requiring assessments, hearings, and written findings of no less restrictive alternatives—together with a requirement to fully eliminate such secure confinement by September 30, 2028 (except under the Interstate Compact for Juveniles for up to 15 days); and (D) clarification that the jail removal requirement applies to jails or lockups for adults, with a new exception for juveniles awaiting trial or other legal process who are treated as adults for prosecution purposes. (As background, the JJDPA provides formula grants to states to improve juvenile justice systems, conditioned on compliance with core protections such as deinstitutionalization of status offenders, jail removal, and sight-and-sound separation from adult inmates. Thus, these changes tighten VCO limits and phase them out while broadening allowable grant uses and narrowing jail removal in limited cases.)