Brief News: New Attorney General; More on Girls; Money ...

Every now and then, I'll post links to intriguing and important stories you might have missed. Here's a few I've collected in the past few days:

• Eric Holder, Obama's pick for Attorney General (AG). The new AG will have an impact on juvenile justice policy. Some material collected on Holder by Youth Today suggests he'd be good for juvenile justice; but links collected by Grits for Breakfast, while not strictly connected to juvenile justice, are more worrisome. You decide. 
• More on Girls. I posted recently on new research on what works for girls in the juvenile justice system. Now Youth Today's got a rabble-rousing interview with Lawanda Ravoira the director of the National Center on Crime and Delinquency's new National Center for Girls and Young Women. I expect we'll be hearing a lot more from the Center for Girls and Young Women very soon. (Related post: What about the boys? Research shows that contact with the juvenile justice system actually makes boys more likely to commit crimes as adults.)
• Grant Opportunities. The Department of Labor announced two different, big-dollar funding opportunities related to juvenile justice:
  • Re-entry grants for youth returning from correctional facilities - apply by December 18th. (Thanks to Susan from Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust for the tip.)
  • YouthBuild grants for at-risk youth and young adults ages 16-24 - apply by January 15th. Participants will work on building and reconstructing affordable housing.  (Thanks to Join Together for this tip.)
• Team-Building. Trying to build a successful team for your Reclaiming Futures initiative? Don't forget your administrative staff.  (Thanks, LJ!)
• No Detention for Status Offenders? Youth Today reported in July that if the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act is passed next year, an amendment will phase out the use of detention for status offenders (e.g., truants and runaways) by 2012.

This is great news, since the further juveniles are pulled into the system, the more likely they are to return. But even though teens' risk to public safety should be the deciding factor in whether or not youth are sent to lock-up, there's a practical problem: communities often have an inadequate service network to serve these youth.
That's why the community should be involved in Reclaiming Futures efforts: so that youth don't have to go to jail to get treatment.