David Domenici: Educators Can and Should Break the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Speaking at the New Schools - Aspen Institute Summit 2012 last week, David Domenici challenged educators to embrace troubled (and often challenging) students and to keep them in school, instead of calling the police.
(watch David's short talk at the 29:45 mark)
He listed 4 focus areas:
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National Prevention Week is May 20-26!
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has created a new annual health initiative called National Prevention Week. This year’s event will span May 20-26, with the theme: “We are the ones. How are you taking action?”
SAMHSA’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities. This national observance celebrates the work that community organizations and individuals do year-round to prevent substance abuse and promote mental, emotional, and behavioral wellbeing, while serving as an opportunity for community members to learn more about behavioral health issues and get involved in prevention efforts throughout the year.
The event’s dates were strategically selected to coincide with the beginning of summer, a season filled with celebrations and recreational activities that can potentially be linked to substance use and abuse (such as graduation parties, proms, weddings, boating and camping excursions); it is also timed to allow schools to take part in a prevention-themed event before the school year ends, raising awareness in students of all ages.
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Misconceptions About High-Risk Youth Offenders
The High Desert Daily Press featured a three-part story last week exploring how San Bernardino County prosecutes, supervises, and rehabilitates their juvenile offenders. Daily Press reporter Beatriz E. Valenzuela looked at patterns of juvenile crime and arrest reductions, the unbridled powers of local district attorneys to “direct file” juveniles into adult court and the impact of adult realignment and Governor Brown’s juvenile realignment plan on local corrections systems.
The facts highlighted by the Daily Press are well known to criminal justice experts, but also demonstrate the many contradictions that exist in county and state-level juvenile justice practices. The third article also includes some unfortunate misinformation.
Ms. Valenzuela quotes San Bernardino County Probation spokesman Chris Condon saying, “The state continued to take 707b offenders, or those who committed serious or violent felonies, and we at the county level housed the lower-level 707a offenders.” Mr. Condon argues that counties cannot handle more serious 707b youth offenders and that, “there are certain offenders who even with some rehab will not do well.”
Yet San Bernardino County’s own local practices contradict this statement. San Bernardino County Probation manages the Gateway Program, a secure facility for high-needs youth. The probation department’s evaluation of the program shows that serious 707b offenders comprise 36% of the juvenile offenders in the Gateway Program.*
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Disruptive Behavior Sends Students to Court Instead of Principal's Office
Actions that once sent students to the principal’s office to be handled by teachers and faculty are now getting Massachusetts students pulled from school entirely and sent to juvenile court in handcuffs, according to a recent report by Citizens for Juvenile Justice. Research shows that police officers are increasingly stepping in to handle behavior such as foul language, hallway misconduct and disrupting public assemblies, which has led to a significant spike in student arrests.
Data from Springfield, Boston and Worcester, three of Massachusetts’s largest school districts, shows children as young as 11 were subject to arrest and were faced with criminal records for minor offenses during the 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years. Although students should be held accountable for their actions, using police and court resources instead of existing school disciplinary practices could pose severe consequences for their future. One alarming statistic noted by the report states that, “students who are arrested at school are three times more likely to drop out than those who are not.”
Criminalizing children for these minor offenses not only limits their educational and career opportunities, but it is also costly for schools and taxpayers. Springfield schools have armed officers permanently stationed at selected schools for the entire duration of the school day, contributing to a hefty payroll percentage that could be spent on staff leadership and disciplinary training.
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Wake Forest Law School Students Mentor Troubled Teens in North Carolina
An integral part of Reclaiming Futures' six step model is connecting troubled young people with positive and caring adult mentors. In Forsyth County, North Carolina, Wake Forest Law School students are volunteering their time to mentor teens and provide that positive influence.
Our very own judicial fellow Judge William B. Reingold spearheaded the partnership between the Pro Bono Project and Reclaiming Futures. He recruited students by sharing the benefits of being a mentor while detailing the great need in Forsyth County.
Writing in the Pro Bono Project's blog, law student Ramie Shalabi explains the partnership:
The Wake Forest University School of Law students meet at least once a week with their mentees and participate in activities such as bowling, prom dress shopping, and playing basketball. The mentors are required to write “contact notes,” which they submit to Advanced Placement monthly, to help ensure that the program is running effectively.
Although law students make a one-year commitment to the program, most of this year’s mentors have expressed their desire to remain involved in their mentee’s lives. Kelsey Baird (’13), a mentor, called her experience “valuable as it is fulfilling . . . and one of the best programs I’ve been involved in at Wake Forest.”
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Reconnecting Homeless Youth to Avoid Criminal Activity
Social Control Correlates of Arrest Behavior Among Homeless Youth in Five U.S. Cities (abstract), Violence and Victims, Volume 26, Number 5, 2011.
What it’s about: Researchers interviewed 238 homeless youth from five large U.S. cities about their time spent on the street, employment history, substance use, mental health, criminal history and use of social services. The researchers wanted to know which factors were associated with more criminal activity and higher rates of arrest among homeless youth.
Why read it: To survive on the streets, some homeless youth engage in illegal activities like prostitution, theft and selling drugs. When these youth want to leave the streets, having a criminal record can keep them from getting the services and support they need.
By understanding the factors that make homeless youth more likely to commit crimes, youth workers can better understand what they can do to keep youth from getting in trouble in the first place.
Biggest takeaways for youth workers: Researchers found that arrests were higher among homeless youth who
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Youth court steers first offenders to the right path and more: news roundup
Juvenile Justice Reform
Youth court steers first offenders to the right path (Livingston County News) Teenage volunteers are trained to serve as judges, attorneys, juries and other court officers empowered with determining a community service “sanction” for the young offender to complete.
Justice deptartment moves to engage public in juvenile court remedy (Tri-State Defender) U.S. Department of Justice officials on Wednesday (May 9) confirmed plans for their own town hall meeting designed, in part, to help make sure that “people understand the next steps” in bringing Shelby County Juvenile Court up to federal standards.
Opinion: Trying youths as adults hurts families and taxpayers, but not crime (Christian Science Monitor) Most youth cases that end up in adult court, get there automatically – a result of laws, for instance, that set the age for adult trial at 16 or 17. These youths are not afforded the benefit of any kind of judicial hearing or case review by a juvenile court judge.
Fewer Texas kids in discipline schools (Austin American-Statesman) The number of Texas children in schools for those previously expelled because of disciplinary problems declined by nearly 40 percent over five years, a top juvenile justice official told lawmakers Monday.
Teen Court program designed to steer youths away from crime (Gazette.net) Teen Court is a program run by the Prince George’s County state’s attorney’s office that allows first-time juvenile offenders to avoid the juvenile justice system by being granted a second chance by a “jury” of their peers.
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Day 2 Takeaways from the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute
We're spending the week in San Antonio for the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute (which you may already know if you're following @RFutures on Twitter). For those not on Twitter, we'll be posting updates here on the blog and on Facebook.
Here are our takeaways from Day 2:
Cora Crary, Learning Collaborative Manager, Reclaiming Futures
- People are inclined to believe stories - with or without data.
- However, if you share data without the story people are uncomfortable believing it (as an example read through any Harper's index and see if you believe everything you read)
Liz Wu, Blog Editor, Reclaiming Futures
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Day 1 Takeaways from the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute
We're spending the week in San Antonio for the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute (which you may already know if you're following @RFutures on Twitter). For those not on Twitter, we'll be posting updates here on the blog and on Facebook.
Here are our takeaways from Day 1:
Cora Crary, Learning Collaborative Manager, Reclaiming Futures
- "Sometimes the best treatment is cookies and milk." Day one started off with a fantastic presentation by Jerry Tello who developed the Cara y Corazon curriculum used by Reclaiming Futures Santa Cruz. His presentation reminded us that no scope of work or assessment has the power to heal the way feeling wanted and connected within a community can.
- Marcus Stubblefield reinforced Jerry Tello's work in his presentation on community involvement. He reminded us that, "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
- At lunch we got a fantastic dance presentation by the local youth group, HYPE -- including a chance to see our colleagues on the dance floor.
- Laura Nissen talked about the importance of family engagements and reminded us that systems create trauma in the lives of their clients.
- To top it off we saw a number of fellows rise to our Twitter challenge. So keep track in real time to their highlights with the hashtag #rf10.
Liz Wu, Blog Editor, Reclaiming Futures
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Use Poetry to Help At-Risk Youth Sort Out Who They Are
Poetry is powerful. Clinical psychologist Rebecca Chalmers sees that power whenever she uses poetry as a therapeutic tool.
“When young people share a poem they’ve written, and everyone says that it’s beautiful, that’s supporting who they are and how they’re able to intellectually and emotionally express themselves, and that feels so good,” says Chalmers, who practices in New York and has a Master of Fine Arts in poetry.
As a mode of expression, poetry is tailor-made for teens. “Poetry is very immediate and about the self and helps sort out ‘who I am’ in a way that speaks to them,” Chalmers says. And working on poetry with a group of other youth can feed teens’ need to relate, she says. “By the time they’ve written something and shared it with other group members and gotten that supportive feedback, they form such a bond.”
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