Youth PROMISE Act

Youth Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Monitoring, Intervention, Support, and Education Act or the Youth PROMISE Act - Title I: Federal Coordination of Local and Tribal Juvenile Justice Information and Efforts - (Sec. 101) Amends the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 to establish a PROMISE Advisory Panel to assist the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in: (1) assessing successful evidence-based and promising practices related to juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention carried out by PROMISE Coordinating Councils established by this Act; and (2) developing performance standards to be used to evaluate programs and activities carried out with grants under this Act. Requires such Panel to provide the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention with a list of individuals who have experience in administering or evaluating practices that serve at-risk youth.

Requires the PROMISE Advisory Panel, within 18 months after enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, to prepare a report on its assessment and submit such report to Congress, the President, the Attorney General, and the chief executive and chief law enforcement officer of each state, local government, and Indian tribe.

Authorizes appropriations for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for FY2010-FY2014.

(Sec. 102) Directs the Administrator to award grants, on a competitive basis, to organizations for: (1) collecting and analyzing data related to the existing juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention needs and resources in each designated geographic area; and (2) using such data to compile a list of areas that are in need of resources and rank such areas in descending order by the amount of need for resources to carry out juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention. Authorizes appropriations.

Title II: Promise Grants - Subtitle A: PROMISE Assessment and Planning Grants - (Sec. 201) Authorizes the Administrator to award grants to local governments and Indian tribes to assist PROMISE Coordinating Councils with planning and assessing evidence-based and promising practices relating to juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention. Requires PROMISE Coordinating Councils to develop a PROMISE Plan based on such assessments. Limits such grants to a one year term and a maximum dollar amount of $300,000.

(Sec. 202) Establishes eligibility requirements for PROMISE Coordinating Councils.

(Sec. 203) Requires PROMISE Coordinating Councils to conduct an objective strengths and needs assessment of the resources of the community for which they were established and to identify the unmet needs of youth in the community with respect to evidence-based and promising practices related to juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention.

(Sec. 204) Sets forth the components which a PROMISE Plan must contain.

(Sec. 205) Authorizes appropriations for this subtitle and for the geographic assessment of resource allocation.

Subtitle B: PROMISE Implementation Grants - (Sec. 211) Authorizes the Administrator to award grants to local governments and Indian tribes to assist PROMISE Coordinating Councils with implementing PROMISE Plans. Limits such grants to a four-year term and a maximum dollar amount of $10 million for each year of the grant period.

(Sec. 212) Sets forth eligibility requirements for a PROMISE implementation grant.

(Sec. 213) Requires PROMISE implementation grants to be awarded on a competitive basis. Directs the Administrator to ensure that grants are awarded in areas with the highest concentration of at-risk youth.

(Sec. 214) Sets forth reporting requirements for local governments and Indian tribes receiving PROMISE implementation grants.

(Sec. 215) Authorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2014.

Subtitle C: General PROMISE Grant Provisions - (Sec. 221) Requires local governments and Indian tribes to use grants only to supplement, and not supplant, the funds that are available to address the needs of youth in the community with respect to practices related to juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention.

(Sec. 222) Directs the Administrator to: (1) establish and utilize a transparent, reliable, and valid system for evaluating applications for PROMISE Assessment and Planning grants and for PROMISE Implementation grants; and (2) provide for an evaluation of grant programs and activities carried out under this title. Sets forth criteria for such evaluation.

Title III: Promise Research Centers - (Sec. 301) Directs the Administrator to award a grant to a nonprofit organization with expertise in operating or evaluating effective, evidence-based practices related to juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity prevention or intervention to develop a National Research Center for Proven Juvenile Justice Practices. Authorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2014.

(Sec. 302) Directs the Administrator to award grants to institutions of higher education to serve as regional research partners with PROMISE Coordinating Councils. Authorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2012.

Title IV: Youth-Oriented Policing Services - (Sec. 403) Requires the Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to award grants to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies: (1) to hire law enforcement officers as youth-oriented police to work collaboratively with PROMISE Coordinating Councils, other community-based organizations, and youth at high risk of becoming involved in delinquent activities; and (2) for training and capacity-building of law enforcement agencies relating to youth-oriented policing practices and efforts. Limits the term of any such grant to four years and the maximum grant dollar amount to $2 million.

(Sec. 404) Requires the Director to award a grant, on a competitive basis, to an eligible organization to establish a Center for Youth-oriented Policing to: (1) develop a model youth-oriented policing service program; (2) support the adoption of new technologies related to the prioritization of risks related to juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activities, the safety of juveniles in custody, and the prevention of gun violence; (3) develop, compile, and disseminate to youth-oriented police information about evidence based and promising practices and information about the "stop snitching" culture and tactics to counter such culture.

Directs the Center to establish a Youth-oriented Policing Services Advisory Board to develop an annual work plan for the Center.

(Sec. 405) Authorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2014 for the Center for Youth-oriented Policing.

Title V: Enhanced Federal Support of Local Law Enforcement - Subtitle A: Comprehensive Gang Prevention and Relief - Mynisha's Law - (Sec. 502) Authorizes local governments and Indian tribes to submit an application to the Administrator for designation as a Comprehensive Gang Prevention and Relief Area (Area). Directs the Administrator to establish criteria for reviewing an application and for evaluating and selecting areas for designation.

(Sec. 503) Directs the Administrator to establish an Interagency Gang Prevention Task Force to coordinate federal assistance to Comprehensive Gang Prevention and Relief Areas. Requires the Task Force to: (1) coordinate the activities of the federal government to create a comprehensive gang prevention response; (2) prioritize the needs of Areas for funding under specified federal statutes and programs, including the Head Start Act and the Job Corps program; and (3) report to Congress and the Administrator on the funding needs and programmatic outcomes for each Area.

(Sec. 504) Authorizes appropriations.

Subtitle B: Community and Police Collaboration - (Sec. 511) Authorizes the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to make grants to local governments and Indian tribes with a PROMISE Coordinating Counsel to develop community-based programs that provide crime prevention, research, and intervention services that are designed to prevent violence and gang involvement by youthful offenders and at-risk youth. Limits a grant amount to a maximum of $1 million. Authorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2014.

Subtitle C: City Youth Violence Recovery - (Sec. 521) Authorizes the Attorney General to award grants to prevent or alleviate the effects of youth violence in urban communities by providing violence-prevention education, mentoring, counseling, and mental health services to children and adolescents in such communities. Authorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2014.

Title VI: Precaution Act - Prevention Resources for Eliminating Criminal Activity Using Tailored Interventions in Our Neighborhoods Act of 2009 or the PRECAUTION Act of 2009 - ( Sec. 604) Establishes the National Commission on Public Safety Through Crime and Delinquency Prevention to study and report to specified federal and state officials on the effectiveness of certain crime and delinquency prevention and intervention strategies. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 605) Authorizes the Director of the National Institute of Justice to make three-year grants to public and private entities to fund the implementation and evaluation of innovative crime or delinquency prevention or intervention strategies. Authorizes appropriations.

Title VII: Additional Improvements to Juvenile Justice - (Sec. 701) Amends the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to: (1) expand victim protection programs to include juvenile witnesses; and (2) authorize appropriations for such programs for FY2010-FY2014.

(Sec. 702) Increases the number of sites receiving grants under the Mentoring Initiative for System-Involved Youth Program. Authorizes appropriations for such Program for FY2010-FY2014.

(Sec. 703) Requires the United States Sentencing Commission to study and report to Congress on the appropriateness of sentences for minors in the federal system. Requires such study to: (1) incorporate the most recent research and expertise in the field of adolescent brain development and culpability; (2) evaluate the toll of juvenile crime, particularly violent juvenile crime, on communities; (3) consider the appropriateness of life sentences without possibility of parole for minors; and (4) evaluate issues of recidivism by juveniles.

(Sec. 704) Authorizes the Attorney General, in collaboration with professional sports leagues and players, to establish a youth initiative to end youth violence and other youth crime. Requires the Attorney General to study and report to Congress on the potential for reducing youth violence and other youth crimes though such collaborations.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov