Blog: Juvenile Justice Reform

Juvenile Justice Reform

• States have second thoughts about juveniles in adult court (Bellingham Herald) Nearly 20 years after the "iron fist" ruled in Colorado, the tide is turning in preference of checks and balances so that youth are not caught in the middle of the system.
• At-risk youths achieve in Texas (Go San Angelo) A $154,000 grant was awarded to the Tom Green County Juvenile Justice Department earlier this year to address the needs of children ages 6 through 13. The goal is to identify problems in school or the household before students end up on juvenile probation.
• Handcuffing of 8-year-old prompts change in school policy (Las Vegas Review Journal) When the Superintendent Dwight Jones learned of the arrest of Tyrus Williams, he ordered a policy change to reflect that juveniles of elementary age shall not be arrested and transported to any juvenile facility unless authorized by the chief of police.
• Psychiatrists stand against harmful juvenile justice system policies (National Juvenile Justice Network) In a recent policy statement, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) strongly opposes the use of solitary confinement for youth in trouble with the law. The statement discusses the fact that youth are especially sensitive to the known adverse effects of solitary confinement, like anxiety and psychosis.
• New report: Louisiana ‘strayed’ from commitment to juvenile justice reform (Youth Today) Nearly a decade after Louisiana committed to sweeping changes to the state’s struggling juvenile justice system, some advocates contend the governor and leaders in the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice are “backsliding” on their commitments to reform.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment News
From The Partnership at Drugfree.org

• 7-Eleven announces move to prevent underage purchases of tobacco, potential inhalants  7-Eleven to launch a new technology that will scan the code on the back of a customer’s driver license or identification card, in a move to prevent minors from purchasing alcohol, tobacco, potential inhalants and lottery tickets.
• New report: Treating drug use as public health issue could lower crime rate A new government report suggests that treating drug use as a public health issue could lead to reduced crime rates. The annual report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy finds illegal drugs play a central role in criminal acts.

Jobs, Grants, Events and Webinars
Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance abuse and teen mental health areas. It's free to browse and post!

A recently published report shines a light on collective efforts being made to transform Arkansas’ juvenile justice system.
This white paper, “Arkansas Youth Justice: The Architecture of Reform” by Pat Arthur and Christopher Hartney, first provides an overview of the state of juvenile justice in Arkansas before reform efforts began. Then, the authors outline the architecture of the reform process currently underway under the stewardship of Ron Angel, Director of the Division of Youth Services (DYS). The article also describes the essential elements of specific reform initiatives in detail.
Hypothetical scenarios and models to further advance and “revolutionize” current policy and practices are proffered, with the goal to advance efforts to safely reduce the number of youth held in secure custody, as is called for in the (DYS) division's strategic reform plan.
This article is designed to aid in the larger discussion happening among Arkansas policymakers and stakeholders about practical and effective ways to further the goals of reform in the future.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• How revision of the state budget could affect San Joaquin County (Record Net) Governor Jerry Brown's revision of the California state budget could mean the Division of Juvenile Justice would continue to operate, but its budget would be cut by $24.8 million. The governor is proposing to charge counties $24,000 per year for each person committed to a state juvenile justice center.
• New Pennsylvania Bar Association chief focuses on youth (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Thomas G. Wilkinson Jr., the new chief of the Pennsylvania Bar Association will push three priorities, 1) training requirements for prosecutors and public defenders involved in juvenile cases; 2) civics education, so kids understand how government works and the availability of courts to resolve disputes instead of taking disputes into one's own hands; and 3) youth courts to help address the number of kids who get into the juvenile justice system.
• Tackling gang violence (The Crime Report) Toledo, Ohio builds an approach similar to Boston during the late 1990s to tackle violence. The model was developed by David Kennedy, now the director of the Center on Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College in New York.
• Youth recovery court starts in Winnebago County (WREX) Chief Justice Janet Holmgre describes a holistic approach to providing a comprehensive network of mental health services to help the youth that are involved get out of the juvenile justice system and hopefully stay out of the adult criminal justice system.
• Portland church spearheads effort to keep youth out of justice system (The Portland Daily Sun) Restorative Justice Center in Portland, Maine has won endorsements from the law enforcement community including the Portland Police Department and the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office. "This gives us an additional tool as police officers that we didn't have," said Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck.
• Calling in juvenile justice cavalry (Austin American Statesman)  Gov. Rick Perry moved Jay Kimbrough from his new position as assistant director for homeland security at the Department of Public Safety to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department to bring some urgently needed safety and security to the agency's youth lockups.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• DSM 5 could mean 40% of college students are alcoholics (TIME) Most college binge drinkers and drug users don’t develop lifelong problems. But new mental-health guidelines will label too many of them addicts and alcoholics. The DSM 5 will have just one diagnosis for addiction problems, though it will be characterized as mild, moderate or severe.
• Breaking the inter-generational cycle of substance abuse (Join Together) Children raised in a household with one or more parents struggling with a substance use disorder often use compliance as a coping mechanism—a skill that often no longer serves them well in adulthood. Compliance is one key reason so many people with substance use disorders do well while in the criminal justice system, but relapse, often only days after they are released.

Jobs, Grants, Events and Webinars

• Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance abuse and teen mental health areas. It's free to browse and post!

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:

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Program helps juvenile offenders stay out of jail  Belleville News-Democrat A federal government official, state officials, judges and local leaders met in East St. Louis Wednesday to discuss and learn about Redeploy Illinois, a state program that works to keep juvenile offenders out of detention centers.
• Opinion: Juvenile justice reform Orlando Sentinel In Florida, Orange and Osceola counties smartly realized one bad decision shouldn't ruin a kid's life.
• Fixing juvenile court, we can't let this stand Tri-State Defender A unified response to the findings of the U.S. Justice Department’s recently released investigation of Shelby County Juvenile Court is driving the push for a town hall meeting being spearheaded by Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks.
• Reports underscore safety, security issues at Giddings youth lockup Chicago Tribune Confidential reports reveals that long before a state ombudsman made public an alarming report about safety and security issues at the Giddings State School, attacks on workers and reports of violence and out-of-control youth had been on an upswing.

Bart Lubow, who has been working for more than 20 years to reduce the number of youth being sent to detention centers, told a gathering of approximately 700 conference attendees last week that now “may prove to be a unique moment in juvenile justice history, a time when, as a nation, we shed some of the system’s worst baggage—including our unnecessary and often inappropriate reliance on secure confinement” of youth.
The conference attendees were in Houston for the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative conference, which as its name implies is working to reduce the number of youth sent into detention and instead aims to provide community-centered alternatives. The conference is hosted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Apparently the 19-year quest is working. Lubow, director of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group at the Casey Foundation, told the gathering that “JDAI sites have reduced reliance on secure detention overall by 42 percent, with numerous jurisdictions posting reductions in excess of 50 percent.” All of this happening without compromising public safety, he said.
The quest in the end means, in Lubow’s words, “We need to detain the right kids, but only the right kids.”

Our friends at the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE) spent this week at the Kids Behind Bars: Where's the Justice in America's Juvenile Justice System? conference in New York, discussing the juvenile justice system and the role of the media in reporting facts (good) and sensationalizing stories (bad). 
Their takeaways are relevant for journalists and bloggers but also for readers of this blog, many of whom work with(in) the juvenile system. During day 1 of the John Jay Symposium, speakers discussed:

• the now discounted superpredator theory from the 1990s and the role of the press in perpetuating it
• research findings showing that the human brain does not reach full maturity until the mid-20s
• the importance of mentoring
• disproportionate minority contact
• school discipline policies
• juvenile justice reform efforts

In case you missed it: The Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention are looking for communities interested in implementing the Reclaiming Futures model. And they have $1.325 million (over 4 years) in funding to give away. 
From the request for proposals:

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is pleased to announce that it is seeking applications for funding under the FY 2012 Juvenile Drug Courts/Reclaiming Futures program. This program furthers the Department’s mission by building the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop and establish juvenile drug courts for substance abusing juvenile offenders.

The deadline is May 16, 2012, so apply today! We look forward to working with you!

Juvenile Justice Reform

Opinion: Trust judges with juvenile placements
Denver Post
Right on Crime's research indicates that judges are the best public officials to make the determination of which system should handle a juvenile offender, as opposed to the current system where a prosecutor can directly transfer a juvenile to the adult system under the direct-file system.
Youth volunteers needed to continue Prince George’s County’s teen court program
Gazette.net
The Prince George’s County state attorney’s office’s Teen Court program is looking for additional teen volunteers to maintain the program. Teen Court is a diversion program for first-time juvenile offenders and provides them with a second chance to avoid the juvenile justice system. Juvenile offenders have the opportunity to admit their guilt and perform various tasks as punishment for their crimes.
Problems spiked in 2011 at troubled juvenile detention facilities
Baltimore Sun
Youth violence and staff uses of force spiked in 2011 at Maryland's most troubled juvenile detention centers, according to an annual report by the state's Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, part of the attorney general's office. The number of incident reports filed rose 25 percent from 2010 to 2011 across the state's juvenile justice system to nearly 8,000, while some of the more violent categories of incidents increased even more.
Across the nation, state legislatures focus on children in 2012
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
State legislatures across the United States have been busy this year with youth and juvenile justice-related legislation.
Youth court aims to get misbehaving teens back on the right track
KSL
In Sandy, Utah, Youth Court is praised as one of the most successful juvenile programs in the state.
Guest Column: Sentencing children to die in prison is cruel and unusual punishment
Jurist
This past month, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs, two cases challenging the constitutionality of sentences of life without parole for children convicted of homicide. Many questions centered on the appropriate age limit for a constitutional prohibition on these sentences. The Court has to look no further than its recent precedent to find the answer: 18
Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment
Teens in Treatment for Substance Abuse can Benefit from 12-Step Programs
Join Together
Teenagers in treatment for substance abuse can benefit from 12-step programs, a new study suggests.
Synthetic Marijuana On the Rise: Looks Like Pot, but ‘Far Worse’
Christian Science Monitor
Antidrug activists are concerned by the rising use of man-made drugs known as synthetic marijuana, which purport to be a legal way to a herbal high but are actually dangerous chemical concoctions that are banned in many states.
New Florida State Law to Help get Synthetic Marijuana Off Store Shelves in Indian River County
TC Palm
Last year, Florida banned five of the chemicals used in Spice. This year, the state’s passed new legislation to eliminate the loopholes and provide a more effective ban on synthetic marijuana.
Six Tips to Protect Your Child from Online Drug Threats
Join Together
The Treatment Research Institute has developed a training program for parents that provides practical recommendations to help them defend their children from these online drug threats.
Sharp increase in prescription drug poisonings among teens reported
Join Together
Poisoning deaths among teenagers rose 91 percent between 2000 and 2009, primarily due to prescription drug abuse, according to anew report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CDC.
Economies of Scale in the Cocaine Industry
NYT’s Freakonomics Blog
As drug traffickers have become more organized (in processing, transport, and retail networks), the price of cocaine has plunged.
A Night Out with a Small Town Heroin Dealer
The Crime Report
Prescription pills are increasingly becoming a gateway drug that leads to heroin use. And small and suburban towns are not immune to the spread of this dangerous drug.
Drug Court can Claim Enviable Success Rate
Ledger-Enquirer
A Georgia county Juvenile Drug Court has reduced the recidivism rate to 15% while saving taxpayer dollars and getting teens into treatment programs.