Marquette, MI - News Detail

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2007

Contact:
Mac Prichard, macp@pdx.edu, 503-725-8921
Mark Nicastre, 202-293-6200 x.222

Michigan State Leaders Urge Adoption of New Approach to Juvenile Justice and Substance Abuse

Lansing, MI (April 25, 2007) – At a forum held today in Lansing, Michigan community leaders, youth advocates and policymakers praised the Reclaiming Futures model for improving juvenile justice and treating teenage substance abuse in Marquette County and urge replication of the successful project throughout the state.

"In the past five years, Marquette County and nine other communities across the country have pioneered a new national standard in juvenile justice," said Kristin Schubert who oversees Reclaiming Futures for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "In doing so, these communities are showing the rest of the country how teens can escape a cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime."

Schubert spoke at a public forum that brought together state leaders to explain the Reclaiming Futures model, discuss the results it produced in Marquette County and share ideas about how to expand the approach throughout Michigan. Other speakers included Don Allen, director of the Michigan Office of Drug Control Policy, Senator Alan Cropsey, Senator Mike Prusi, Representative Steve Lindberg and Judge Michael Anderegg of the Marquette County Circuit Court.

"Young people in trouble with drugs, alcohol and crime need treatment, better treatment and more than treatment," said Sen. Alan Cropsey. "Reclaiming Futures does this by using evidence-based practices and by providing community assistance through mentors and positive social opportunities."

Schubert told the legislators that Marquette and the other Reclaiming Futures sites have reported significant improvements in the quality of juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment services in 12 out of 13 areas, according to a recent evaluation by the Urban Institute and the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children.

"The bottom line?" asked Schubert, "Juvenile justice and drug and alcohol treatment services in Marquette and across the country got better thanks to Reclaiming Futures."

Marquette County is one of 10 communities that piloted the $21 million five-year Reclaiming Futures initiative. The other nine are in Anchorage, Alaska; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Chicago, Ill.; three counties in Eastern Kentucky; the state of New Hampshire; the Sovereign Tribal Nation of Sicangu Lakota in Rosebud, South Dakota; Dayton, Ohio; Portland, Ore. and Seattle, Wash.

About Reclaiming Futures
Reclaiming Futures, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, promotes new opportunities and standards of care in juvenile justice. It is housed in the Regional Research Institute for Human Services of the Graduate School of Social Work at Portland State University. For additional information, visit www.reclaimingfutures.org.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.

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