Appendix A -- Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Background

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) was established by the President and Congress through the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 1974, Public Law 93-415, as amended. Located within the Office of Justice Programs of the U.S. Department of Justice, OJJDP's mission is to provide national leadership in addressing the issues of juvenile delinquency and improving juvenile justice. OJJDP sponsors a broad array of research, program, and training initiatives to improve the juvenile justice system as a whole, as well as to benefit individual youth-serving agencies. OJJDP also provides direction and resources to the juvenile justice community to help prevent and control delinquency throughout the country.

Section 206 of the JJDP Act, as amended, established the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as an independent organization in the executive branch of the Federal Government. The primary function of the Coordinating Council is to coordinate all Federal programs that address juvenile delinquency, detention or care of unaccompanied juveniles, and missing and exploited children.

The Council is composed of an equal number of Federal and practitioner members. The nine Federal members include the Attorney General; Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, and Housing and Urban Development; the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National Service; Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; and any other officers of Federal agencies who hold significant decisionmaking authority as the President may designate. Therefore, the Director of the President's Crime Prevention Council has been added as an ex-officio member of the Council. The nine non-Federal members are practitioners in the field of juvenile justice who are appointed, without regard to political affiliation, by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the Senate, and the President.

As mandated by the JJDP Act, the Coordinating Council is responsible for the following actions:


Contents | Foreword | Acknowledgments | Introduction | Summary
Figures | Objectives | Conclusion | Appendixes