A resolution designating October 2019 as "National Youth Justice Action Month".

III 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. RES. 363 Designating October 2019 as ‘‘National Youth Justice Action Month’’. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OCTOBER 17, 2019 Mr. SCHUMER (for Ms. HARRIS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Designating October 2019 as ‘‘National Youth Justice Action Month’’. Whereas the historical role of the juvenile court system is to rehabilitate and treat young offenders while holding them accountable and maintaining public safety, and the juve- nile 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:11 Oct 18, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR363.IS SR363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •SRES 363 IS from taking on major adult responsibilities such as vot- ing, jury duty, and military service; Whereas youth who are placed under the commitment of the juvenile court system are able to access age-appropriate services and education and remain closer to their fami- lies, which reduces the likelihood that those youth will commit offenses in the future; Whereas, every year in the United States, an estimated 76,000 youth are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults, and most of those youth are prosecuted for non- violent 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 Delin- quency Prevention of the Department of Justice dem- onstrating 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 fu- ture crimes than youth retained in the juvenile court sys- tem; Whereas youth of color, youth with disabilities, and youth with mental health issues are disproportionally rep- resented at all stages of the criminal justice system; Whereas it is harmful to public safety and to young offenders to confine youth in adult jails or prisons where they are significantly more likely to be physically and sexually as- saulted and often placed in solitary confinement; Whereas youth sentenced as adults receive an adult criminal record that hinders future education and employment op- portunities; VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:11 Oct 18, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR363.IS SR363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •SRES 363 IS 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 par- ticipate 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 (1) acknowledges that the collateral con- 2 sequences normally applied in the adult criminal jus- 3 tice system should not automatically apply to youth 4 arrested for crimes before the age of 18; 5 (2) designates October 2019 as ‘‘National 6 Youth Justice Action Month’’; and 7 (3) recognizes and supports the goals and ideals 8 of National Youth Justice Action Month. 9 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:11 Oct 18, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SR363.IS SR363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS