Blog: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Reclaiming Futures helps communities develop networks of caring adults that connect justice involved youth to a wide range of activities where they learn social skills, job skills and new behaviors that help them stay drug-free and crime-free long after they complete treatment and probation.
Are you trying to recruit mentors in your community?
Please take a moment to share Olivia's story of gratitude for her Reclaiming Futures King County mentor, Hazel Cameron. We thank Hazel, of the 4C Coalition Mentoring Program, who helped Olivia break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime. 

Do you want to learn how the Reclaiming Futures model is uniting juvenile courts, probation, adolescent substance abuse treatment, and the community for cost effective juvenile justice reform?

Please register for a free webinar on Tuesday, April 30 at 10 a.m. (PDT)/1 p.m. (EDT)
What you'll learn:

• Communities have a compelling need to break the cycle of drugs, alchohol and crime 
• Reclaiming Futures is connecting young people to caring adults 
• The six-step model is pointing to better outcomes for youth

About the presenters:

Susan Richardson is national executive director for Reclaiming Futures. Formerly, she was a senior program officer in the health care division of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in North Carolina, where she led a three-year effort involving the state's juvenile justice and treatment leaders to adopt the Reclaiming Futures model by juvenile courts in six North Carolina counties. She received her B.S. in Public Health, Health Policy and Administration, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Margaret Soukup is the project director for Seattle-King County Reclaiming Futures, in Seattle, Wash., where she serves as Science to Service/Workforce Development Coordinator Project/Program Manager III, Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division (MHCADSD). Margaret has a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University Seattle and a bachelor's degree in applied science, social sciences from Washington State University. 

Thanks to the teamwork of Hocking County Reclaiming Futures, many teens in Southeast Ohio are receiving the support they need to break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime.
Learn how this team creates healthy activities for young people. In a story, published by the Logan Daily News on April 1, they:

• Hiked trails with a soil & water conservation education specialist,
• Created art from recycled and reclaimed items, and 
• Learned to identify trees and shrubs in the Hocking Hills

Reclaiming Futures teens are learning to give back too. By donating art objects for programming at the Bishop Educational Gardens, they are creating goodwill in the community. 
Kudos to Hocking County Reclaiming Futures for building educational partnerships for court-involved young people. Together, they are connecting teens to positive activities and caring adults.

By bringing together juvenile courts, probation, treatment, mental health, educators and the community, Reclaiming Futures Hardin County has accomplished a lot in two years.
According to a 2012 report, participants in Reclaiming Futures Hardin County reduced substance abuse from 100% at intake to 28% at six months in treatment. At 12 months in treatment their illegal activity dropped to 5% (29% below the national juvenile court average).
This month, Hardin County Reclaiming Futures welcomes Judicial Fellow Judge Steven D. Christopher, to their team of caring adults who are emphasizing treatment over detention.
Judge Christopher fills the vacancy recently left by retired Judge James S. Rapp, who has helped lead many successes, including a 92% graduation rate at Hardin Community School.
Reclaiming Futures Hardin County remains committed to providing:

• Individualized treatment plans based on screening and assessment 
• Evidence-based drug and alcohol education and treatment
• Supervision
• Public education
• Mentors
• Educational and vocational services
• Family support

Please listen to project director, Khrystal Wagner, interviewed March 12 on WKTN Radio:
   
Are you interested in helping your community break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime? Here’s how you can help teens in Hardin, County and everywhere: 

Reclaiming Futures works in 37 communities across the country to break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime. In about one-third of those sites, Reclaiming Futures partners with drug courts, which, according to years of research, work better than jail, prison, probation or treatment alone to significantly reduce drug use and crime.
To celebrate this, and the many lives that have been saved, please join us, and plan ahead for National Drug Court Month in May.
Here are some ideas for celebrating in your community (adapted from the National Association for Drug Court Professionals):

• Hold a commencement ceremony to recognize the accomplishments of participants.
• Schedule a meeting with your members of congress while they are home for Constituent Work Week, May 1-3 and 28-31. Have your Drug Court judge and graduate attend the meetings to educate policymakers.
• Organize a community clean up. Clean a park, street, highway or school. Invite all treatment, mental health, court, law enforcement and probation staff to join in.
• Start a local donation drive.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Legislator Wants to Change the Culture of Juvenile Justice System (NebraskaRadioNetwork.com)
  A leading state legislator says the state juvenile justice system must move from a culture of incarceration to a culture of treatment. Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, says his committee will spend a couple of days hearing legislation that aims at nothing short of the transformation of how Nebraska deals with juvenile offenders.
• In Kentucky, Juvenile Offenders’ Names Could be Shared After Adjudication (JJIE.org)
  On Monday, members of the Kentucky House passed a bill that would allow victims in juvenile court trials to discuss a case once a verdict is rendered, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. House Bill 115 swept through the House with unanimous approval earlier this week, garnering a 93-0 vote in Kentucky’s lower legislative body.
• [VIDEO] Nation Honors Center on Front Lines of Juvenile Justice (Northwestern.edu)
  The Children and Family Justice Center (CFJC) at the Northwestern University School of Law has received a $750,000 award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in recognition of the Center's exemplary advocacy for children caught up in the harsh realities of Illinois’ juvenile and criminal justice systems.
• Inquirer Editorial: Juvenile Justice that Leans Toward Mercy (Philly.com)
  The Luzerne County cash-for-kids scandal revealed the potential for tragedy when locking up juvenile defendants becomes routine. Thousands of young people were harmed by the scheme hatched by two disgraced judges, who took millions of dollars in kickbacks to place young offenders in for-profit detention centers.

A new study from the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Research Institute shows striking levels of substance use among teens seeking mental health care, with one in 10 mentally ill teens reporting frequent use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana. This pattern of substance use becomes more common as teens age, and likely heightens risk of poor physical and mental health outcomes, the study reports.
In a University of Sydney news release, lead researcher Dr. Daniel Hermens said,

“Traditionally there have been mental health services, and substance abuse services, but both have been quite separate. Our study shows that we need to integrate mental health interventions with substance use interventions in order to help at-risk young people.
“There is a lot of evidence for the co-morbidity of mental health problems and substance misuse. More people have both mental health and substance use problems than either alone—in other words, it's the rule rather than the exception."

Published in BMJ Open, the study used self-reported data from more than 2,000 people aged 12-30 years seeking mental health care. Overall, substance use rates increased with age across groups, broken into age bands of 12-17, 18-19, and 20-30 year-olds.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Juvenile Justice Should be a Focus for Georgia (AlbanyHerald.com)
  In her final State of the Judiciary address before the General Assembly today, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein is expected to focus on an issue that needs serious thought — juvenile justice.
• [AUDIO] When Crime Pays: Prison Can Teach Some To Be Better Criminals (NPR.org)
  In popular lore — movies, books and blogs — criminals who go to prison don't come out reformed. They come out worse. Scientists who have attempted to empirically analyze this theory have reached mixed conclusions, with analyses suggesting that activities like drug addiction or gangs are what determines whether the correctional system actually gets criminals to correct their ways.
• Mapping Juvenile Justice (TheCrimeReport.org)
  A new mapping project demonstrates overlaps between New York City communities with the highest percentage of youth, the lowest household incomes, rates of foster care placement and adults without high school diplomas.
• GA Police Chief to Serve on Juvenile Justice Board (CBSAtlanta.com)
  The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice has announced Elaine Snow, chief of the City of Rome Police Department, has been named vice chair of the agency's board. Snow is filling a board position that was left vacant by Avery Niles after Gov. Nathan Deal named him as Department of Juvenile Justice Commissioner.
• Gov. Dayton appoints the first Minnesota Somali Woman to Serve on the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (TCDailyPlanet.net)
  Saciido Shaie has long had a dream that her thoughts and actions would one day become a reason for Minnesota youth to excel in education and life. That’s why she’s spent many years of leadership and advocacy in building a better place for Twin Cities’ young minorities. Minnesota took a note of her passion in activism, and so did Governor Mark Dayton. He appointed her last June as the first Somali woman to serve on the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee for Minneapolis.
• Suffer the Children (The Economist)
  On March 29th 2012 Georgia’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted on a criminal-justice reform bill that read like a left-leaning criminologist’s fantasy. It revised sentencing laws to keep non-violent drug and property offenders out of prison, directing them instead toward alternatives—drug courts, day-reporting centres, mental-health courts—designed to treat and rehabilitate rather than punish. Now Georgia is looking to do something similar for juveniles.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Urban Teaching and Juvenile Justice OR Why I Have 8 Probation Officers’ Numbers in my Phone (Philly Teacher Man Blog)
  "When I started teaching, I had no interest or background in the juvenile justice system. The fact that it might one day be incredibly relevant to my work in education was not even on my radar, but here I sit nearly 5 years later with no fewer than 8 probation officers in my cell phone."
• Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice Prepares for Transformation (JJIE.org)
  Georgia’s DJJ boss tells state lawmakers that his department must be transformed to handle the burdens a class of inmates that’s older and more violent, and high employee turnover and low morale, just as the governor pushes a large package of reforms.
• Florida Tightening Juvenile Justice Monitoring (Bradenton.com)
  State officials on Friday announced plans for quality improvements and tighter monitoring of juvenile justice residential and detention facilities following the arrest last month of a staff member accused of battering a 15-year-old girl in the Florida Panhandle.
• Senator Proposes Moving Toughest Juvenile Offenders to Adult Prisons (Statesman.com)
  In a move that would change decades of state policy, the chairman of the Senate’s criminal justice committee suggested Monday that 17- and 18-year-olds who commit violent crimes should do their time in a new system of youth prisons rather than in Texas’ juvenile lockups.