Juvenile Justice & Safety

One of my main goals since first being elected to office has been to promote public safety with law enforcement collaboration for fair, smart-on-crime policies for youth opportunity and justice, through all aspects of the justice system.

Reforming Outdated Juvenile Justice System and Reducing Crime

Growing up in Pacoima, I saw the effect gangs have on our community. Gang prevention and juvenile justice reform have always been my most important priorities. I chaired an internationally-renowned advisory committee that developed the nation’s first comprehensive "Community Based Gang-Intervention Model",developed by intervention practitioners themselves.

In 2000, as a California State Assemblyman, I co-authored and passed AB 1913, the Schiff-Cárdenas Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act, which has provided local communities with approximately $120 million per year, the single, largest appropriation of state funds for youth crime prevention in the history of the United States. Confirming its effectiveness, a report from the Rand Corporation indicates that statewide efforts after the passage of the Schiff-Cárdenas Act have resulted in lower law enforcement costs and a measurable positive affect on young people who participate in it. As a freshman Congressman, I tried to bring those same benefits to our nation as a whole, introducing the “Community-Based Gang Intervention Act’’ (H.R. 2669) in 2013. The law would provide funding and direction for agencies to intervene in the lives of young people who are at-risk, keeping them out of the prison system and making our communities safer.

I also want to protect the mental and physical health of the young men and women who have been incarcerated in our nation, so that eventually they can be rehabilitated and returned to become productive members of society. With that in mind, I also joined two U.S. Senators, introducing the At-Risk Youth Medicaid Protection Act; the Prohibiting Detention of Youth Status Offenders Act, which was also introduced in the Senate by Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania; and the Protecting Youth from Solitary Confinement Act. These laws address the physical health of incarcerated kids, stops our nation from being the only country in the world to put kids in solitary confinement and stops judges from being able to put kids in jail for skipping school or smoking cigarettes.

Crime Prevention and Youth Development Caucus

I also founded the bipartisan Crime Prevention and Youth Development Caucus along with U.S. Rep. David Reichert. We were joined by charter members Judge Ted Poe and Bobby Scott, to encourage the federal government, particularly Congress, to work toward smart justice reform for at-risk youth and further efforts that encourage violence prevention and youth opportunity.

Protecting Our Nation's Student-Athletes

In August, 2014, I joined U.S. Rep. Charles W. Dent of Pennsylvania to announce the formation of the bipartisan Congressional Student-Athlete Protection Caucus. The Caucus was founded to both inform Congressional members about physical, academic and financial issues faced by student-athletes, and to ensure that all student-athletes participating in collegiate athletics are treated fairly and are provided with the educational promise that is at the heart of collegiate athletics.

In November 2013, I introduced the Collegiate Student Athlete Protection Act (CSAP) which also would create scholarship and concussion protections, while requiring universities to provide full medical coverage for student-athletes. Some great changes have already begun taking pace in collegiate athletics, and I look forward to finishing the job. Giving our student-athletes the same protections that any other American receives when they trade their work for compensation is the only just, fair thing to do.