On the recordFebruary 7, 2019
Today, I rise in support of H.R. 494, the Tiffany Joslyn Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Program Reauthorization Act of 2019. We cannot, as a nation, continue to condemn our children into the criminal justice system. African American youth are significantly more likely to be tried as adults. In 2014, although Black youth were only 14 percent of the juvenile population, they represented 52 percent of the youth tried as adults in this country. This legislation reauthorizes important programs that ensure sentences for our young people are appropriate and not excessive, and it funds accountability-based programs to intervene when youth are most vulnerable in the system. I support this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
