Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 is a United States federal law providing funds to states that follow a series of guidelines regarding the rights of juvenile offenders. The purpose of the legislation is to reduce labeling, as advocated by labeling theory. The four key requirements of the act are:
*the deinstitutionalization of status offenders and non-offenders
*"sight and sound" separation between juvenile and adult offenders
*a sharp limitation on the ability of the juvenile justice system to detain juveniles in adult facilities
*protection of minority groups from being overrepresented in high-security facilities

The third requirement was added in 1980 in response to finding juveniles incarcerated in adult facilities resulted in "a high suicide rate, physical, mental, and sexual assault, inadequate care and programming, negative labeling, and exposure to serious offenders and mental patients." [http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/juvenile/apab.html] The last was not a full requirement of the JJDP Act until the legislation was amended in 1994. [http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/annualreport98/chapter5a.html]

The compliance of states towards the requirements of the JJDP Act is monitored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. [http://www.nal.usda.gov/pavnet/ff/ffojjdp.htm] As of 2000, the "vast majority" of participating states comply with the first three requirements and are making strides towards the fourth. [http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/annualreport2000/chap3.html#c] . With the exceptions of South Dakota and Wyoming, all states participate in the program.

Reauthorization bill

On June 18, 2008, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont introduced S.3155 [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.03155:] , a bill to reauthorize the juvenile delinquency prevention programs of the JJDPA through FY2013, saying, "With the reauthorization of this important legislation, we recommit to these important goals but also push the law forward in key ways to better serve our communities and our children." [THOMAS (Library of Congress) Congressional Record: Page: S5761]

The reauthorization bill makes changes to the original bill in that it, among other things:
* requires rigorous new procedures before a state can detain a status offender, and strictly limits the time they may be detained;
* encourages states to move away from keeping young people in adult jails;
* prioritizes and funds mental health and drug treatment;
* emphasizes effective training of personnel who work with young people in the juvenile justice system;
* creates incentives for the use of programs that research and testing have shown to work best;
* refocuses attention on prevention programs intended to keep children from ever entering the criminal justice system. [THOMAS (Library of Congress) Congressional Record: Page S5761]

On July 31, 2008, the bill was passed by the Judiciary Committee with broad bipartisan support. [PR Newswire, Juvenile Justice Organizations and Advocates Applaud Senate Judiciary Members on the Approval of Strong JJDPA Legislation, July 31, 2008]

External links

* [http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/issues/jjdpa/factsheet.html Overview of JJDP Act]

References