In the Administration’s FY 2021, the Department of Justice requested $227.5 million in discretionary funding for the Juvenile Justice Programs, a decrease of $92.5 million below the FY 2020 Enacted level. Despite the recent reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), funding for the JJDPA has dropped by 40 percent since the law was last reauthorized in 2002.
Juvenile Justice Programs supports a wide range of state and local programs designed to reduce risks of delinquency, and enhance prevention efforts. The Administration proposal include:
• $58 million for Title II of the JJDPA
• $17 million for Title V including $2 million for the prevention of trafficking of girls, $5 million for tribal youth programs, $500,000 for a website for children of incarcerated parents, $2 million for girls in the juvenile justice system, $9 million for an opioid-affected youth initiative, and $8 million for children exposed to violence
• $43 million for Youth Mentoring
• $20 million for programs for the Victims of Child Abuse
• $85 million for missing and exploited children programs
• $2 million for child abuse training programs
It is critical that appropriators fund the JJDPA at authorizing levels to ensure implementation of the updated Act is successful. CWLA joined others organizations and signed onto the Act 4 JJ Coalition appropriations letter, urging Congress to dully fund juvenile justice programs in FY 2021. The deadline to sign on is COB Friday, March 6. You can sign on using this link.
The CWLA budget chart can be found here with the budget summary found here.
