Blog: Juvenile Justice Reform

Want to address mental health issues in your juvenile court?
The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is seeking applications that demonstrate a collaborative
project between criminal justice and mental health partners from eligible applicants to plan,
implement, or expand a justice and mental health collaboration program.
Grants will be targeted at anyone -- juvenile or adult -- who:

• Has been diagnosed as having a mental illness or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorder; and
• Has faced, are facing, or could face criminal charges for a misdemeanor or nonviolent offense.

Want to get some expert pointers on how to talk to the media about juvenile justice issues? 
Then check out the presentations from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice's(CJJ) Southern Regional conference. Held January 29-31 in Charleston, SC, the conference focused on working with the media to promote juvenile justice reform and to strengthen the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act's (JJDPA) four core requirements.
On the conference web page, you can find:

• the conference agenda;
• a presentation from Judge Steve Teske of Clayton County, GA, offering pointers on working with the media;
• a presentation on how Jefferson County, AL successfully worked to reduce court referrals from Birmingham schools by a whopping 84% (this collaborative effort also had a media strategy);
• a presentation from Linda O'Neal of the Frameworks Institute on how framing the message correctly is necessary to get members of the public to care about teens in the juvenile justice system; and
• an overview by Tara Andrews, deputy director of CJJ, of key talking points with regard to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA).

President Obama released his proposed 2011 federal budget this week. Here's a sneak peek at what that might mean for funding in the adolescent substance abuse treatment arena and for juvenile justice systems across the country. 
 
According to a summary from the Department of Health and Human Services, the President's budget:

Are you attending the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) 20th Annual National Leadership Forum in National Harbor, MD next week?
Come and join us to learn more about how Reclaiming Futures is being implemented through juvenile drug court grants from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
The workshop, titled, "Juvenile Drug Courts:  Building the Model," will give an overview of juvenile drug courts -- their history, challenges, 16 strategies for developing and maintaining them, and current performance measures for success. It will also focus on OJJDP's work to build the juvenile drug court program model through its partnerships with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Reclaiming Futures.
Gwen Williams, MSW, who is a Program manager at OJJDP, will be the primary presenter. She will be joined by Yvonne Sherrer, Community Fellow at the Reclaiming Futures site in Dayton, OH, and Christa Meyers, Project Director at the Reclaiming Futures site in Hocking County, OH. 
"Juvenile Drug Courts:  Building the Model" will be held on Thursday, February 11th, from 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm, in the room called "National Harbor 4/5."

The American Bar Association (ABA) Criminal Justice Section's on-going effort to catalog the far-reaching effects of juvenile adjudications or convictions continues apace, with a large body of research already completed, and more data being collected every day. 
 
What Are "Collateral Consequences?

"Collateral consequences" are adverse results stemming from an arrest, prosecution, or conviction, but are not part of the sentence.
 
For example, although a juvenile who was adjudicated delinquent at 14 may have completed her sentence, she may be unable to gain admission to a professional school later on in life, or have difficulty finding public housing. Often, collateral consequences can impact a juvenile's family members; depending on the child's offense, for example, an entire family may be evicted from public housing.

Editor's Picks: Stories of the Week

 
New Federal Drug Control Strategy

• If you manage an adolescent substance abuse treatment agency or system, you won't want to miss this recorded webinar. The Obama Administration’s ambitious national drug control strategy, due out until February, could double or triple the number of people getting treatment by integrating addiction treatment into doctor’s offices. There will also be a new focus on treating offenders and an overall emphasis on recovery in addition to treatment. Check it out - it's completely worth your time.
   

The 2010 Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) conference is fast approaching: it'll be held April 9-13, in Washington, D.C. The theme? "Ensuring School Engagement and Success for Youth At-Risk."
Interested in presenting? CJJ will be selecting twelve 75-minute presentations for the breakout sessions. You can learn more here. Deadline for presentation proposals is February 19th. 
Also, we've created a web page about the conference that you can bookmark. It will be updated as more information about registration and the conference agenda becomes available.

Juvenile Justice Reform News

• The New York Times published a strong editorial arguing for immediate and decisive action on the part of the federal government to address shockingly high rates of sexual abuse in juvenile detention centers and prisons around the country. (Last week, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) published the first-ever report of its kind on the sexual victimization of teens behind bars.)
• James Bell of the W. Haywood Burns Institute seized on the BJA's report to deliver another eloquent, blistering column on the state of the juvenile justice system this week: "Captured by the Clueless." If you're interested in Bell's work on disproportionate minority contact, you should also check out his interview with John Kelly of Youth Today.
• Gotham Gazette published an excellent look at New York state's struggle to get rid of the "culture of violence" in its juvenile justice system. (Hat tip to @policy4results.) Staff-vs.-youth violence has been documented in reports by the U.S. Department of Justice, a task force set up by the governor of New York, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Human Rights Watch. The Gotham Gazette piece does a good job of explaining the frustrations of reformers as well as the counter-arguments of union representatives. But what resonated most strongly with me was this quote:

The 17-year-old who spent time in the state's facilities said the workers' attitudes varied. "Some staff was like, 'Let them be kids'; other staff was like, 'They did a crime.' Others were like, 'I just don't care 'cause I still get paid.' There was some staff that really helped me and there were others that didn't care," she recalled.

Moving Toward a Better Response to Disproportionality

For over two decades, there has been a great deal of concern about disproportionate representation of minority children in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Research has confirmed that this disproportionality extends in many jurisdictions across the two systems and across race and ethnicity.
 
Despite the broad interest in addressing disproportionality within these two systems, we have not seen a lot of effort by these two systems to learn from each other’s efforts and to work across service systems to confront it. These two systems are, however, particularly appropriate places to start this type of cross-system effort. After all, studies inform us that children and youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems are often the “same kids,” just seen at a different point in time. This research informs us that children and youth who are maltreated are more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system than those who have not been abused or neglected. So how can we get the systems to work together on this critically important issue?