Major new legislation, the Juvenile Crime Control Act of 1997 (H.R. 3), designed to assist states and local governments in combating serious juvenile crime, was overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives on May 8.
The legislation, sponsored by Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), authorizes a $1.5 billion block grant program over a three-year period. The vote on final passage was 286 to 132.
Under H.R. 3, grant funds can be spent on a range of broad categories, including interagency information-sharing programs, accountability-based programs, juvenile drug courts and juvenile detention.
More importantly, under provisions in H.R. 3, at least 75 percent of the block grant funds must be distributed at the local level, in accordance with a formula that relies substantially for the first time on the use of criminal justice expenditure data, to determine city and county allocations. Two-thirds of the formula is based on relative criminal justice expenditures at the local level. One-third is based on the volume of serious crime.
While a state would be able to retain up to 25 percent of the block grant funds for state juvenile justice purposes, it would not be able to pick and choose which cities or counties are to receive the local share of block grant funds.
Local governments would automatically receive their allocation by formula provided they qualify for a minimum award of $5,000 or more, meet any precondition requirements and complete a one-page application form.
In report language accompanying floor consideration of H.R. 3, the House Judiciary Committee assessed the new formula and its relationship to the role that counties perform in the administration of juvenile justice systems: "This pass-through provision is intended to provide maximum resources to county governments in particular, which bear the largest burden in the administration of juvenile justice systems. This is accomplished in the distribution formula by placing greater weight on the variable of law enforcement expenditures rather than on the variable of the number of crimes."
In the House, unlike the Senate, two major committees, the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Education and the Workforce, share jurisdiction for juvenile justice legislation.
Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, has responsibility for juveniles who commit federal crimes (about 300 a year) and for other federal initiatives, while Rep. Frank Riggs (R-Calif.), chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families has jurisdiction over the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
This act, now funded at $144 million, was enacted in 1974. It has, for the last 23 years, been the major source of assistance to counties in reforming the juvenile justice system and for preventing juvenile crime.
Action on juvenile crime legislation now shifts to the House Committee on Education in the Workforce, which plans to introduce its own bill later this month, and to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the Senate counterpart to H.R. 3, the Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997 (S. 10), awaits consideration. It is now expected that H.R. 3 will be merged with the Riggs bill prior to Senate consideration of S. 10.
S.10 is expected to be marked up by the Senate Judiciary Committee before the end of May. It is anticipated that it will come to the Senate floor sometime in June. In an interview published last month in Juvenile Justice Update, Rep. Riggs expressed the hope that H.R.3 would be merged with his bill reauthorizing the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
"I hope that we will be able to merge the two bills so that we could bring to the House floor a comprehensive, but balanced anti-crime juvenile bill targeted to youthful offenders. That's our whole idea. Again, one that expresses accountability as well as prevention, " he said.
Although there are similarities between H.R. 3 and S.10, there are some important differences. S.10 channels all of its block grant funds to the states, while H.R. 3, as noted, distributes block grant funds to cities and counties by formula.
Another important distinction is that the House measure contains four prerequisites or preconditions before states and counties can qualify to receive block grant funds.
Under the House bill, states would have to ensure that prosecutors have the option to try juveniles 15 years old or older as adults for violent crimes.
The states and counties would also be required to impose a system of graduated punishments for every delinquent or criminal act, establish a public criminal record system for serious juvenile offenders (who have at least one prior felony conviction), and provide enabling authority for juvenile judges to impose sanctions on parents who disobey court orders relating to the care and supervision of their children.
During floor debate in the House, a number of Democrats complained that because of these federal prerequisites, no more than 12 states would be eligible to receive funds without first modifying their existing statutory authority.
The 12 states expected to meet the requirements are: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Vermont and Wyoming. It is now widely expected that many of the preconditions will be made more flexible in the Senate.
NACo policy in juvenile justice supports a strong focus on prevention with particular emphasis on early prevention and collaborative planning and authority at the county level.
In addition, delegates to NACo's 1996 Annual Conference reaffirmed the association's longstanding position urging counties "to remove juveniles from correctional facilities which detain accused or adjudicated adults." The NACo delegates also approved new language recommending that juvenile detention facilities be used to house serious and violent juvenile offenders.
With the House and Senate focusing major attention on new legislation to combat serious juvenile crime, the future of the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant remains unclear.
Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) expressed support for the program last week during House debate on juvenile violence.
"I will be working with appropriations to find the funds necessary to support the juvenile justice grants in the bill and the more general purpose public safety block grants that passed in the Congress last year as part of the appropriations process."
Given current budgetary constraints, it will be difficult to fund the block grant at its current level and mount a major effort on juvenile justice at the same level.