Justice for Juveniles Act

Mr. Speaker, I thank the manager and the chairman of the full committee, Committee on the Judiciary, and to the manager for our friends on the other side of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 961, the Justice for Juveniles Act.

This is very close to my heart as the chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security working on these juvenile justice issues. And this is a necessary and important bipartisan bill that will save incarcerated young persons' lives.

As indicated, chairing the subcommittee, we recently held a hearing titled, ``Juvenile Justice Pipeline and the Road Back to Integration.'' I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) for this very effective and important initiative.

During the hearing, we heard testimony from witness after witness who acknowledged the body of scientific research that has been embraced by experts and the Supreme Court--and that I have known and seen over the years as we have written legislation--demonstrating that juveniles do not have the same cognitive and emotional maturity as adults.

In fact, there is data that says that the brain does not fully mature until age 25. This bill makes a good change to the Prison Litigation Reform Act to take into account that the overwhelming majority of juveniles cannot comply with the law's complex grievance procedures by themselves. This bill is an important bipartisan step to ensuring incarcerated juveniles are rehabilitated and given the best chance possible to reintegrate into society.

Just some statistics that I saw recently when I received a note about a graduation of foster children from high school, saying about 60 percent of those children not having a complete opportunity in life did not graduate from high school. And so these children wind up in these facilities. They should not; they should have a life. And therefore, we should be able--not associating foster care children with those incarcerated--but we do know the susceptibility to these children and others who don't have a steady hand in their life. So this is an important step.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague on the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, for authoring this bill.

As I worked on this legislation, it is important to note that to deal with a grievance system, it requires an understanding of the grievance process. But on a more basic level, it requires that an incarcerated person be able to read.

According to one study, we know that incarcerated youth are functionally illiterate in many instances, and the baseline reading levels vary from grade 1 to 6. That is a plague, if you will, on children in our society that can have a bright and wonderful life.

In addition, approximately 70 percent of incarcerated juveniles have at least one learning disability. And we know that because of what happens in schools in the recently changed State laws where juveniles have been sent from the schoolhouse to juvenile detention.

Mr. Speaker, this alone justifies the changes in the bill, which simply allow incarcerated juveniles to go directly to court to have serious deficiencies in their incarceration, including allegations of assault, corrected.

As I said, I thank my colleague, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon. As I work on legislation to achieve more extensive juvenile justice reform, I support the passage of this bill--commonsense, overdue--and ask that my colleagues support this as well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 961, the ``Justice for Juveniles Act.'' This is a necessary and important bipartisan bill that will save incarcerated young people's lives.

The Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee, which I chair, recently held a hearing titled the ``Juvenile Justice Pipeline and the Road Back to Integration.''

During the hearing, we heard testimony from witness after witness who acknowledged the body of scientific research, that has been embraced by experts and the Supreme Court, demonstrating that juveniles do not have the same cognitive and emotional maturity as adults.

This bill makes a modest change to the Prison Litigation Reform Act to take into account that the overwhelming majority of juveniles cannot comply with the law's complex grievance procedures.

These requirements not only require an understanding of the grievance process, but on a more basic level, require that an incarcerated person be able to read. According to one study, among incarcerated youth, 85 percent are functionally illiterate, and the ``baseline reading levels var[y] from grade 1 to grade 6.''

In addition, approximately 70 percent of incarcerated juveniles have at least one learning disability.

This alone justifies the changes in the bill, which simply allow incarcerated juveniles to go directly to court to have serious deficiencies in their incarceration, including allegations of assault, corrected.

This bill is a small but important bipartisan step to ensuring incarcerated juveniles are rehabilitated and given the best chance possible to reintegrate into society.

I thank my colleague on the Crime Subcommittee, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, for authoring this bill.

As I work on legislation to achieve more extensive juvenile justice reform, I support passage of this bill today and ask that my colleagues do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 961) to exempt juveniles from the requirements for suits by prisoners, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 961.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 961, the Justice for Juveniles Act.

This bipartisan bill would eliminate the administrative exhaustion requirement for incarcerated youth before they may file a lawsuit challenging the conditions of their incarceration.

By passing this bill today, the House would correct the manifest wrong currently present in Federal law and would continue bipartisan efforts to support incarcerated youth.

This bill recognizes the same conclusion that has been embraced by the Supreme Court and experts for decades, that incarcerated young people have different cognitive abilities than adults, are less mature, and have a higher chance of being assaulted while incarcerated.

In recent years, our Nation has finally come to the realization that youth and adults have fundamentally different decisionmaking abilities. The Supreme Court has repeatedly cited adolescents' lack of maturity as a reason why they are not as culpable as adults for their actions or able to recognize certain dangers.

Yet, in current law, there are no allowances for these differences in cognitive abilities when it comes to addressing deficiencies in conditions of confinement.

Complying with current law, which requires an understanding of detailed grievance procedures and timelines, is nearly impossible for most incarcerated youth. Compliance with grievance procedures not only requires an understanding of the grievance process but, on a more basic level, it requires that an incarcerated person be able to read, which, sadly, many incarcerated people cannot do.

According to one study, among incarcerated youth, 85 percent are functionally illiterate, and the baseline reading levels vary from grade one to grade six. In addition, approximately 70 percent of incarcerated juveniles have at least one learning disability.

Youth are, furthermore, less likely than adults to recognize as risks the circumstances they face in a correctional facility. Youth may not recognize the impending or imminent danger of some of the risks they face.

Compounding these challenges, incarcerated youth, as a group, experience extraordinarily high rates of mental illness. Nearly 50 percent of incarcerated 16- to 18-year-olds suffer from a mental illness. Juveniles housed with adults are 10 times more likely to have psychotic episodes, and they have a suicide rate that is 7.7 times higher than those housed in juvenile facilities.

In recent years, the public has become more aware of the many dangers that lurk in correctional facilities. Hurricanes have flooded facilities; cold snaps have left prisoners freezing to death; and heat waves have killed prisoners when they lacked proper ventilation or air conditions. These conditions pose a special danger to youth, who do not have the ability or experience to recognize that they are in immediate danger.

While natural disasters can pose an extraordinary risk to youth, prison life itself may also pose life-threatening dangers. Adolescents incarcerated with adults are also more prone to both physical and mental abuse. Youth are 50 percent more likely to be physically assaulted when they are housed in adult facilities than in juvenile facilities.

Taken together, most incarcerated youth are simply not able to recognize or to effectively communicate when their prison conditions become dangerous or unconstitutionally deficient.

There remains little doubt that the current process needs to be changed.

This bill proposes a modest reform to the Prison Litigation Reform Act. It simply exempts youth in correctional facilities from having to comply with technical grievance procedures before they can go to court to challenge the unconstitutional conditions of their confinement. While I would like to see us do much more to protect incarcerated youth, this bill is a necessary first step.

I thank Ms. Scanlon and Mr. Armstrong for introducing this bipartisan legislation, and I urge all Members to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I join the gentleman in urging Members to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be here today to advance the Justice for Juveniles Act. I thank Chairman Nadler, Leader Hoyer, and my colleague, Congressman Armstrong, for their support and partnership on this effort.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act, or PLRA, was passed in 1996 in an effort to decrease so-called frivolous lawsuits brought by prisoners. Chief among the PLRA's mandates was a requirement that before seeking relief for civil rights violations in court, a detained person must exhaust administrative remedies.

Whatever the merits of that underlying legislation, we now have broad bipartisan agreement that the language is overbroad in its application to juveniles.

Studies have consistently shown that juveniles are both more likely to be abused while in detention and less likely to navigate the administrative remedies that bar them from seeking relief.

For those of us who have kids or who have worked with children, it is easy to imagine the difficulty a young person in detention might have navigating complex legal systems necessary to raise a complaint.

Young people in the criminal or juvenile justice system are more likely than not to be functionally illiterate, and science has shown that the brain is not fully developed until a person is in their mid- twenties. It is one of the many reasons our justice system makes a distinction between juvenile and adult offenses.

That is what we hope to acknowledge with the Justice for Juveniles Act by exempting juveniles from the requirements of the PLRA.

In addition, the PLRA also limits the kind of relief that juveniles might seek for civil rights violations while in detention. They cannot seek relief now for emotional injuries without physical ones as well, but studies show that youth are especially prone to psychological injury and abuse, which they often face in detention.

Finally, the PLRA limits the recovery of attorney's fees in such cases. Again, juveniles are less likely to have

independent resources to fund an attorney, so that makes it harder for young people to find an attorney to vindicate their rights.

To those who might question whether we need to correct the PLRA, I offer the story of the Glen Mills Schools, which inspired this bill.

For almost 200 years, youth from across the United States were sent to Glen Mills when they ran afoul of the law. But the school's bucolic campus and renowned athletic teams masked serious daily violence inflicted upon children placed there.

An explosive 2019 report by The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed years of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of the young residents, including broken bones, threats of retaliation, and sustained physical assaults at the hands of staff members. Although the stories from Glen Mills are heartbreaking, they are not unique.

Reports show that mistreatment of young people in juvenile facilities happens all the time across the country.

Just this past March, despite the recent example of Glen Mills, children were removed from yet another juvenile detention facility, just a few miles away, after horrifying new allegations of abuse.

This commonsense, bipartisan legislation passed unanimously on the House floor last Congress and has the support of over 60 organizations.

I, again, thank Chairman Nadler and the committee members and staff who helped advance this bill, and I thank the dedicated leadership team who brought the bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation again.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, our prison systems are ideally meant to rehabilitate, but all too often, they do exactly the opposite. They are frequently home to widespread, horrible abuse, including physical and sexual violence and unsanitary living conditions.

It is unacceptable to subject any person to such conditions--but, particularly, our youth to this kind of mistreatment. Our system makes it incredibly difficult for young people to

file a legal complaint with huge burdens imposed if they want to file a lawsuit, and major barriers to legal representation.

Mr. Speaker, I was a public defender here in Washington, D.C., at the start of my career, and I am certain that this is no way to treat children that we are trying to rehabilitate and prepare for society and prepare for success in their communities.

These circumstances only make it more difficult for young people and children and, in fact, they keep them in abusive and delinquency cycles.

This legislation, however, will remove some of those barriers for incarcerated juveniles to take their abusers to court and to seek remedies for mistreatment by their correctional institutions. This bill will take us one step closer to desperately needed reform in our criminal justice system and will help to protect our incarcerated youth.

Mr. Speaker, I really thank and applaud Congresswoman Scanlon for this important and bipartisan legislation, and it is my honor to support it today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 961, the Justice for Juveniles Act. This bill eliminates some of the administrative hurdles for juvenile prisoners seeking relief in Federal court.

Juvenile offenders often lack the knowledge to pursue and exhaust all the complex administrative rules and grievance procedures in correctional facilities. H.R. 961 will address that problem by providing juvenile offenders with quicker access to courts when they feel they are being abused or mistreated.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I take a moment to note my agreement with the gentlewoman from Texas' point, that the cognition of juveniles is not fully developed and that they should not be called upon to make unalterable, lifelong decisions under those circumstances.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.