State of New Hampshire - News Detail

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Gives New Hampshire District Court $200,000 to Help Troubled Youth

CONCORD, N.H. - The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, today awarded the New Hampshire District Court a $200,000 grant to improve access to community-based substance abuse treatment and other services for young people in trouble with the law.

The New Hampshire District Court's project, called Reclaiming the Futures of New Hampshire's Youth, proposes to serve 300 young people annually charged with alcohol or drug offenses beginning in 2003. The grant is one of 11 totaling $2.7 million awarded nationwide for new treatment and other services for delinquent youth.

"America's juvenile justice system faces a public health crisis," says Laura Burney Nissen, Ph.D., director of Reclaiming Futures, a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "As many as four out of five of the two million young people who enter the justice system each year have an alcohol or drug problem. Even though research shows that treating alcohol and drug abuse reduces crime, saves money, and builds stronger communities, the vast majority of young offenders receives no treatment at all."

"We want to change this," says Nissen. "The grants we are awarding today will create model programs in New Hampshire and elsewhere in the United States to show how we can reinvent treatment, judicial and social services to meet this urgent need."

According to state figures, up to 95 percent of the young people entering the Youth Development Center, New Hampshire's juvenile detention facility, report significant substance abuse. State officials also report a 339 percent increase in juvenile arrests for drug offenses between 1992 and 1996, and a 26 percent increase in juvenile and adult substance-related offenses between 1995 and 1998.

"New Hampshire and our communities are poised to institute meaningful systemic change in the way we respond to substance abuse among juvenile offenders," says Administrative Judge Edwin W. Kelly of the District Court.

"Building upon the seminal work that has occurred on both a state and local level over the past several years, we are confident that an infusion of planning dollars will help us affect the attitudinal and functional renaissance that is required to make a difference in the lives of our youth and families," says Kelly.

The New Hampshire District Court was one of 280 applicants. Over the next five years, New Hampshire proposes to improve the delivery of services to juvenile offenders, increase coordination and cooperation between courts and communities, and promote a more active role for families and community members in each youth's life.

Beginning this month, juvenile court judges and officers, law enforcement officials, treatment professionals, and civic, youth and family leaders in New Hampshire and the 10 other communities nationally will spend a year planning their programs. In four following years, communities can apply for up to $250,000 annually to implement the plans.

Reclaiming Futures officials say judicial leadership will play a critical part in these efforts and up to two local judges in each community will participate in a two-year fellowship. Thomas E. Bamberger, associate justice of the Nashua District Court, and Willard G. Martin, Jr., special justice of the Laconia District Court, will represent New Hampshire in the national fellows program.

"Our community recognizes that punishment cannot be the only path available for juveniles who commit delinquent acts and abuse substances. In order for these juveniles to become productive members of our community, to be reclaimed, this population will need a clear, enforceable and accountable plan for rehabilitation," says Judge Bamberger. "This grant will help us reach that goal," he says.

Reclaiming Futures is a five-year $21 million initiative of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based at the Graduate School of Social Work at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was established as a national philanthropy in 1972 and today is the largest U.S. foundation devoted to health and health care. To learn about its mission and work, see www.rwjf.org