Blog: Funding

In December, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a bulletin outlining proposed policies that will give states more flexibility and freedom to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under the proposed policies, states will have the ability to individually determine the list of services that make up the Essential Health Benefits Package under the ACA. These will be used to determine insurance coverage in future state insurance plans. HHS is currently accepting comments from the public on the plan until Tuesday, January 31, 2012, at EssentialHealthBenefits@cms.hhs.gov. 
From the Bulletin:

Essential Health Benefits
The Affordable Care Act ensures Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance. To achieve this goal, the law ensures health plans offered in the individual and small group markets, both inside and outside of the Affordable Insurance Exchanges (Exchanges), offer a comprehensive package of items and services, known as “essential health benefits.” Essential health benefits must include items and services within at least the following 10 categories:

• Ambulatory patient services
• Emergency services
• Hospitalization
• Maternity and newborn care
• Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment
• Prescription drugs
• Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
• Laboratory services
• Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management, and
• Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Behind California’s Governor’s plan to close state’s juvenile justice system
  The Bay Citizen:
  For the second time in one year, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed permanently closing the Division of Juvenile Justice, a move that would make California the first state in the nation to eliminate its youth prison system and shift responsibility for the most dangerous young offenders to counties.
• Kate Middleton’s new cause: addiction and recovery
  LA Times:
  Eight months after wedding England's Prince William, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge (formerly Kate Middleton), has revealed she will become a patron of the British charity Action on Addiction, which supports research, prevention and treatment of addiction, support for addicts' families and the education and training of those working in the field.
• Data: OJJDP releases delinquency cases in juvenile court fact sheet
  This new fact sheet from the OJJDP presents statistics on delinquency cases processed between 1985 and 2008 by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction for public order, person and property offenses and drug law violations.
• Funding Award: Everychild gives $1 million to juvenile justice center
  Centinela Youth Services, Inc. has been named the recipient of the $1 million 2012 Everychild Foundation grant. The funds will launch and sustain a restorative justice center across the street from three Los Angeles juvenile courts over a three-year period.
  

• Delayed by months, suicide-proof beds still not in cells at youth prison
  An Illinois youth prison still does not have suicide-proof beds in rooms where kids on suicide watch are held. The installation has been plagued by delays.
• Some juvenile cases to revert to youth court after adult court sets penalty
  A new law in Ohio will send juveniles convicted of a non-mandatory offense in adult court to juvenile court before any adult sentence is served. This will allow the juvenile court another opportunity to determine whether the offender can be rehabilitated in the juvenile system.
• Assaults, crowding plague Maryland’s youth detention facility
  Price George’s County youth detention facility remains plagued by assaults, security lapses, crowding and understaffing, according to a new report.
• Georgia lawmaker makes juvenile justice reform top priority
  Rep. Wendall Willard, R-Sandy Springs, said one of his priorities for the session is to reform the state’s juvenile justice system. “Our juvenile code has not been really updated in 40 years,” Willard said. “I think we maybe lock them up too quickly instead of trying to find ways in the community to address problems they’re facing.”
• Op-ed: Keep teens out of adult criminal court
  Chicago Times: Illinois needs to change the law so that children and teenagers cannot be charged as adults when the only evidence against them is an unreliable, uncorroborated confession. And when DNA evidence is available, it should be tested before any juvenile is transferred to adult court.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Scarcity of ADHD drugs points to larger problem
  LA Times:
  In what the National Institute on Drug Abuse calls a "cause for alarm," abuse of prescription stimulants is also becoming more prevalent in high school. An institute survey of 45,000 students found abuse of stimulants had increased among high school seniors, from 6.6% to 8.2%, just in the last two years.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• California counties to pay the state $125,000 to house juvenile offenders
  California Governor Jerry Brown announced that the state has to pull the trigger on a series of mid-year budget cuts due to low tax revenues. One of those reductions shaves $67 million from the state’s juvenile justice budget. The cut will force counties to foot the bill for Juvenile Justice wards in state custody, at a cost of $125,000 per youth. Alameda County could be put in a $6.2 million bind.
• Kentucky looks for better way to help young offenders
  Kentucky officials are looking for better ways to deal with youth who commit noncriminal offenses such as skipping school or running away. Research shows that detaining status offenders is the least effective and most expensive option. State leaders admit the system needs improvement.
• Oregon will stop holding juvenile offenders in adult prison
  After federal auditors questioned the practice, Oregon has stopped temporarily holding youth in adult prisons. The Partnership for Safety and Justice, which works on criminal justice issues, won legislation in the 2011 session to encourage local authorities to hold youth in juvenile facilities while they await trial.
• New Report: Generic anti-bullying classes found to be ineffective
  OJJDP has issued a report in which bullying in schools is examined and recommendations are made for the best ways schools can provide support to bullying victims. The study found generic curriculum is an ineffective substitute for student-focused engagement strategies.
• Ohio Courts use internet for greater connectivity
  Ohio’s Coshocton County’s Common Pleas Court, Juvenile and Probate Court and Municipal Court are using the internet to share information more easily with the public and other courts. The Common Pleas Court launched a searchable database for the public that features basic information on open and closed cases with the court.
• South Carolina law enforcement officers complete DJJ gang, violence prevention training
  Recognizing that many kids face significant pressure to join a gang, the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice has partnered with the Gang Resistance Education and Training program in multiple communities across the state to bring the curriculum to local elementary and middle school youth.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• New government program aims to protect children from accidental drug overdoses
  A new government program aims to protect young children from accidental drug overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the “Up and Away and Out of Sight” program, to teach parents how to keep medications out of the hands of young children.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Mississippi officials say more youth rehab facilities are needed
  Government officials in Mississippi say that a growing number of youth arrested for crimes are becoming repeat offenders because rehabilitation is not available.
• Iowa Governor visits state’s largest child welfare, juvenile justice and behavioral health agencies
  Governor Terry Branstad is interested in the concept of providing children and families with treatment, utilizing a long-term, comprehensive approach, rather than the standard short-term solution.
• Detroit tackles dropout crisis by engaging students and parents
  Over the next 18 months, PBS NewsHour is examining the consequences of, and solutions for, one of this country's most pressing education issues.
• Wyoming’s Natrona County earns recognition for juvenile justice progress
  The State Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice and Gov. Matt Mead's office honored Natrona county officials for developing a system that offers alternatives to detention for low-risk offenders, cutting its use of secure detention for status offenses like underage drinking by 99%.
• Feds: Florida’s youth prisons are “dangerous”
  Florida’s youth-corrections system is so poorly administered and conditions are so severe that the U.S. Department of Justice said that they violate the Constitution.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Massachusetts theatre company receives federal grant to work with youth
  The Salem Theatre Company was recently awarded a grant from the Healthy People 2020 Community Innovations Project, a program of the US Department of Health and Human Services, to work with local youth. They plan to create three short plays focused on healthy choices with regards to nutrition, substance abuse and youth violence.

• Why Are All the Black Kids in Special Ed?
  Minority students (and especially Black students) are disproportionately diagnosed with disabilities and placed in special education or lowest-level courses. The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia makes the case for seeking a second opinion.
• Lasting Drop in Smoking, Delinquency, Drug Use
  Study shows that tenth-graders in towns using Communities That Care, a prevention system developed by University of Washington researchers, are less likely to have tried drinking or smoking compared with teens living in towns that had not adopted the system. Delinquent behavior, including stealing, vandalism and physical fights, decreased too.
• Kids-for-Cash Sentencing Set for November 4
  Robert J. Powell, the former co-owner of two juvenile detention centers in Pennsylvania who testified he paid kickbacks to two judges, may serve 21 to 27 months in prison for failing to report a felony and abetting tax evasion.

• NYT Editorial: Fewer Teenagers Locked Up in the US
  There are 25% fewer incarcerated young people than last decade. Learn more about that federal data from the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and sustainability and strategy from Three Strategies for Changing Juvenile Justice, a previous post on www.reclaimingfutures.org.
• Restorative Justice: Hot Topic in SF District Attorney’s Race
  Candidates debate bringing together offenders, victims and community members to discuss the impact of a crime and help repair the damage through accountability and rehabilitation rather than punishment.
• Liquor Store Density Linked to Youth Homicides
  U.S. studies find a correlation between the density of alcohol outlets, availability of single-serve alcoholic beverages and violent crime rates among teens and young adults ages 13 to 24.

Recommendation also zeroes out money for reentry programs
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill this afternoon that would fund the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Programs (OJJDP) at $251 million, approximately $24 million below the diminished budget that the agency faced this fiscal year after a last-minute spending deal.  
The committee broke up the $251 million in spending this way:  
-$60 million for the missing and exploited children programs.
-$55 million for mentoring grants.
-$45 million for state formula grants, given to states on the condition that they adhere to basic standards in regard to the detainment of juveniles, and address racial disparities in the system.
-$30 million for Juvenile Accountability Block Grants (JABG), which go to state juvenile justice planning agencies based on the size of a state’s youth population.

• Report: Tribal Youth in the Federal Justice System
  Cosponsored by OJJDP and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, this report is now available online. The report describes findings from a study that explored issues surrounding American Indian youth who are processed in the federal justice system, and discusses the prevalence, characteristics, and outcomes at each stage of the justice system.
• From PBS: Stats and Facts on Juveniles Tried as Adults
  Evidence that deterrent effects are minimal or nonexistent, and that, trying juveniles in criminal court may result in higher rates of reoffending.
• Juvenile Offender Becomes Advocate for Youth At-Risk
  Starcia Ague helped push through a law in the state of Washington that allows Class A juvenile felony records to be sealed, at the discretion of the judge, as long as youth have a clean record for five years after their release.

• Selecting and Implementing Evidence-Based Practices
  Treatment funding is being increasingly tied to outcomes, a trend expected to continue as the integration of behavioral health with primary care moves forward in the context of healthcare reform. Learn more from the Addiction Technology Transfer Center of New England about achieving desired client outcomes in part 2 of a 3-part series.
• Poll: Drug Abuse Equals Childhood Obesity as Top Health Concern for Kids
  On Aug. 15th, the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital released the results of its 5th annual national poll, in which Americans rated drug abuse and childhood obesity as the number one health concern for our nation’s youth. This is important news because it shows that drug abuse is now on the radar screens of people throughout the country and that Americans are very concerned about this issue. Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America issues a statement in response. (Hat tip to Christa Myers.)