[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 163 (Monday, September 21, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H4570-H4571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JUSTICE FOR JUVENILES ACT
Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 5053) to exempt juveniles from the requirements for suits by
prisoners, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5053
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Justice for Juveniles Act''.
SEC. 2. EXEMPTION OF JUVENILES FROM THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
SUITS BY PRISONERS.
Section 7 of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons
Act (42 U.S.C. 1997e) is amended--
(1) in subsection (h), by striking ``sentenced for, or
adjudicated delinquent for,'' and inserting ``or sentenced
for''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(i) Exemption of Juvenile Prisoners.--This section shall
not apply to an action pending on the date of enactment of
the Justice for Juveniles Act or filed on or after such date
if such action is--
``(1) brought by a prisoner who has not attained 22 years
of age; or
``(2) brought by any prisoner with respect to a prison
condition that occurred before the prisoner attained 22 years
of age.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania.
General Leave
Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Pennsylvania?
There was no objection.
Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5053, the Justice for
Juveniles Act. This bipartisan bill, which I introduced along with my
colleagues Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Reschenthaler, and Mr. Jeffries, 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 will advance a measure to
correct a manifest wrong currently present in Federal law and 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, that they are
less mature, and that they 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 either certain consequences or 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.
Pursuing claims under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which
requires an understanding of detailed grievance procedures and
timelines, is nearly impossible for incarcerated youth, particularly
when courts have been exacting in their requirements that the
exhaustion requirements be followed, no matter how sympathetic the
situation.
Understanding the grievance process is made even more challenging by
the educational deficits faced by a substantial number of incarcerated
juveniles. According to one study, among incarcerated youth, 85 percent
are functionally illiterate, and the baseline reading levels vary from
grade 1 to grade 6. 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.
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 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 lack proper ventilation or air-
conditioning.
Of course, the 2019 expose by The Philadelphia Inquirer exposed a
longstanding pattern of abuse of adolescents committed to the Glen
Mills School, which was thereafter closed.
Incarceration or detention poses a special danger to youth who often
don't have the ability to experience or recognize that they are in
immediate danger. 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, 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.
That is why 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, much more, this bill is a
necessary first step, which I ask that my colleagues support today.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from North
Dakota (Mr. Armstrong) will control the minority's time.
There was no objection.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5053, the Justice for
Juveniles Act. This bill eliminates some of the obstacles for juvenile
prisoners seeking relief from our correctional facilities in Federal
court.
Juvenile offenders often lack the knowledge to pursue and exhaust all
the complex administrative rules and grievance procedures in our
correctional facilities. H.R. 5053 will provide juvenile offenders
quicker access to courts when they feel they are being abused or
mistreated.
President Trump has been a leader on criminal justice reform. He
signed into law the bipartisan First Step Act in December 2018. The
President has also commuted the lengthy prison sentences of several
nonviolent offenders and, more recently, pardoned Alice Johnson, who
served 22 years of a life sentence for nonviolent drug trafficking.
This bill is another important step in criminal justice reform. I was
honored to be the Republican lead on this bill. It was a pleasure to
work with Ms. Scanlon from Pennsylvania, the bill's primary sponsor.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
{time} 1330
Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Speaker, this bill is a good piece of bipartisan
legislation.
I agree with Ms. Scanlon; it is an important first step. But I also
think it is important to recognize that, when we do place juvenile
offenders in the adult criminal justice system, we are doing some
things in a different way, and they have unique challenges that they
face in those systems.
This is neither the time, necessarily, nor the place for the larger
debate, but I think the least we can do is exhaust some of those
administrative remedies, given what we know.
I was proud to be the Republican colead on this bill, and I look
forward to its passage.
[[Page H4571]]
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I thank Mr. Armstrong for his help in moving this bill forward.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation is supported by a bipartisan coalition
of groups, including, #cut50, the Campaign for Youth Justice, the
Juvenile Law Center, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association,
and R Street Institute. These organizations, as well as health and
legal experts, acknowledge that simplifying the legal process and
making it less complex is consistent with the developmental needs of
adolescents.
Therefore, H.R. 5053 was developed as a bipartisan bill to protect
young people from abuse in institutions by exempting them from the
administrative grievance requirements that stand in the way of their
getting relief from abusive practices.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this
legislation today, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on
the Judiciary and on Homeland Security, and the Congressional Black
Caucus, and as a cosponsor, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5053, the
``Justice for Juveniles Act,'' introduced by Congresswoman Scanlon
which I am proud to cosponsor.
I want to thank Chairman Nadler for his tremendous leadership during
this Congress and the past several months of hardship, stress, and
disruption not only of the regular normalized operations of this
Committee but of the Congress and more importantly, the lives of the
American people.
It has been said of Americans that we do the difficult immediately,
and the impossible takes a little longer.
The legislative session today is a testament to the determination of
this Committee that despite the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed
the life of over 200,000 Americans, that legislation to improve the
lives of the people we represent and the communities we serve will not
be halted.
The problems facing ordinary Americans due to flaws and inequities in
the criminal justice system, the immigration system, the health care
system, the economy, the trademark system and others do not take a
time-out because of the pandemic and neither does this Congress, and
for that I commend Speaker Pelosi, the House Democratic leadership, and
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
The bipartisan H.R. 5053, the Justice for Juveniles Act protects
young people from abuse in institutions by exempting them from the
administrative grievance provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act
(PLRA) by enabling them to file a lawsuit concerning physical injury,
sexual assault or mental abuse without first having to file an
administrative grievance.
The proposed legislation is supported by a bipartisan coalition of
groups including cut5o, Campaign for Youth Justice, Juvenile Law
Center, National Legal Aid & Defender Association, and R Street
Institute.
The administrative grievance procedure, established by the Prison
Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), requires inmates at federal, state, and
local facilities to file administrative complaints through the prison
in which they are detained.
Under the Justice For Juveniles Act, youth could initiate legal
action to address prison conditions without first filing administrative
complaints.
The PLRA was designed to address the problem of the large numbers of
pro se prisoner lawsuits that were being filed and inundating the
federal courts.
Before the enactment of the PLRA, the overwhelming majority of
prisoner cases were civil rights cases filed by state prisoners in
federal district courts and were filed prose.
The vast majority of the pre-PLRA pro se cases were filed under 42
U.S.C. Sec. 1983; incarcerated juveniles filed very few lawsuits.
Generally, to establish a claim under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, a
plaintiff must show that a person acting under color of state law
deprived him of a right secured by the Constitution or the laws of the
United States.
Pursuant to the changes brought on by the PLRA, before an
incarcerated individual can file a lawsuit, he or she must take the
complaint through all levels of a correctional facility's grievance
system.
If a person fails to comply with these requirements, including
missing a filing deadline that can be as short as a few days, he or she
may no longer be able to bring a lawsuit.
This administrative remedy requirement is a high burden for a
juvenile to meet, as it requires a sophisticated understanding of how
to navigate technical procedures.
Held to an adult standard, minors are unduly prevented from
litigating their abuses and thus deprived of a critical tool for
improving their conditions of incarceration.
Moreover, the problem is made worse because grievance procedures tend
to rely on written communication and juveniles in the justice system
typically have serious education deficits.
Cases from around the country make clear that juveniles facing
serious harm are deprived of legal protections because of the PLRA
exhaustion requirements.
For example, in Hunter v. Corr. Corp., a 17-year-old was sexually
assaulted in an adult facility but the case was dismissed because the
court ruled he should have exhausted his administrative remedies first.
In another case, from Kentucky, a juvenile filed a lawsuit alleging
that staff had hit him, shocked him with a stun gun, and then led him
down the hall by his testicles to an isolation cell.
Although the juvenile's lawyer had discussed the incident with the
jail administrator, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State
Police, and the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, the court
ruled that this did not satisfy the PLRA and the suit was dismissed for
failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
Mr. Speaker, exempting youth from administrative grievances
acknowledges that children do not know how to protect themselves from
practices or conduct that is unconstitutional.
The Justice For Children Act makes it easier for juveniles who are
physically assaulted or abused to seek immediate redress in federal
court.
In addition, simplifying the legal process and making it more readily
available to these juveniles is also in keeping with the Supreme
Court's conclusions regarding the developmental needs of adolescents.
I strongly support this legislation and urge all Members to join me
in voting for its passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5053.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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