Major change is needed in the delivery of services to children and youth at high risk of juvenile crime. The juvenile justice system is overworked and underfunded. It needs appropriate resources to rehabilitate young people. Rather than sending more young people to the adult criminal justice system, which lacks age-appropriate services for youth, the focus must be on meeting the needs of youth and strengthening the system of supports available to young people.

Issue Background
The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act authorizes block grant funding for state and local juvenile justice programs. Legislation considered in Congress over the past six years to reauthorize JJDPA would weaken the federal and state juvenile justice systems, encourage the transfer of more teens to adult courts and prisons, and shift prevention resources to prosecution and prison building. Meanwhile, promising programs and those proven effective at preventing juvenile delinquency continue to struggle for funds and are only able to provide services to a small fraction of children and families.

JJDPA assists state and local governments and private nonprofit agencies in supporting and initiating programs that prevent and treat juvenile delinquency. The law provides grants to states and local communities to develop effective education, training, research, prevention, diversion, treatment, and rehabilitation programs to improve the juvenile justice system and to prevent juvenile delinquency.

Funds are allocated to states according to a formula based on the state population under age 18. The FY2001 appropriation level for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act State Formula Grants (Part B) and Discretionary Grants (Part C) is $139 million. The Title V delinquency prevention grants are funded at $95 million; more than half of those funds, however, are reserved for a safe school initiative, tribal youth programs, and enforcement of underage drinking laws.

In the last Congress, the Senate added gun control provisions before passing its juvenile justice measure, which led to a stalemate in conference with the House, where Republicans wanted stricter penalties for young offenders and provisions aimed at curbing media violence. Democrats wanted stricter gun control provisions, such as mandatory trigger locks and background checks at all gun shows. The juvenile justice bill ultimately became a casualty in the battle over gun control provisions.

This year, an alternative proposal has been introduced by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) as part of the Protecting Civil Rights for All Americans Act (S.19). This bill contains provisions to strengthen delinquency prevention efforts in the areas of after-school programs, truancy, and mentoring.

The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation authorizing $1.5 billion over three years in grants for juvenile justice programs. The Consequences for Juvenile Offenders Act of 2001 (H.R. 863), sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) would give most of the money to local jurisdictions, which could use it for projects ranging from building more detention facilities to hiring more personnel for the juvenile justice system. If included in a final juvenile justice reauthorization package, the bill would double funding for the Juvenile Accountability Incentives Block Grant, whose current funding is $250 million a year. Under the legislation, states and localities would be strongly encouraged to implement mandatory graduated sanctions programs that impose a series of increasingly serious penalties for different degrees of juvenile crimes. The bill, which passed by voice vote, reportedly lacks the harshly punitive provisions targeting child offenders that were included in similar juvenile justice legislation last year. The bill could still be amended to include those provisions, particularly in the Senate where they are supported by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Just recently introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) is the Juvenile Crime Prevention Assistance Act of 2001 to amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act to provide financial assistance for the prevention of juvenile crime, with a particular focus on youth considered to be "at-risk" and on effective after-school violence prevention programs.

The Alliance supports the inclusion of the following measures in any juvenile justice legislation:

• Core protections of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). The compromise bill should reject provisions that would try more children as adults, and allow children to be housed with adult offenders while awaiting trial, placing them at risk of assault and abuse in adult jails.
• Provisions which include medical, mental health, special education, counseling, and restitution services for delinquent and violent youth and offer a continuum of graduated sanctions.
• Provisions aimed at reducing disproportionate minority confinement.