On March 24, Senators Pat Leahy (D-VT), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced juvenile justice legislation similar to the bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee at the end of the last Congress.

This legislation, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2009, S. 678, would reauthorize and make significant improvements to federal law. It builds on efforts begun with the last reauthorization in 2002 to bring child welfare and juvenile justice systems together to improve outcomes for children and youth through improved coordination, procedures and protocols.

The legislation would extend the requirement to remove juveniles from adult jails by making it applicable for the first time to juveniles held pretrial, whether charged in juvenile or adult court, and would strengthen the provisions regarding disproportionate minority confinement. The bill also would strengthen the deinstitutionalization-of-status-offenders requirement by asking all states to phase out and fully eliminate use of the Valid Court Order Exception (which causes nonoffending youth/status offenders to be locked up) and would encourage states to eliminate dangerous practices that are harming youth in confinement and promote adoption of best practices and standards.

Some project passage of this in the Senate within the next few weeks to a month, so continue to watch this blog for updates on progress of the JJDPA re-authorization.