; Whereas it is harmful to public safety and to young offenders to confine youth in adult jails or prisons where they are significantly more likely to be physically and sexually assaulted and are often placed in solitary confinement; Whereas youth sentenced as adults receive an adult criminal record that hinders future education and employment opportunities; Whereas youth who receive extremely long sentences deserve an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to grow and change; and; Whereas, over the past 15 years, 80 percent of the States and Washington, DC, have changed their laws, making it more difficult to treat children as if they were adults in the adult criminal justice system; and; Whereas two Federal laws, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act and the Prison Rape Elimination Act, incentivize States to remove youth from adult jails and prisons, leading to a 66-percent decrease in children being placed in adult facilities; Whereas 80 percent of children sentenced to adult time are children of color, despite children engaging in delinquent behavior at roughly the same rates; and Whereas, in October, people around the United States participate in Youth Justice Action Month to increase public awareness of the issues facing youth transferred to the adult criminal justice system and to provide people across the United States with an opportunity to develop action oriented events in their communities: Now, therefore, be it