King County, Washington Buys into Juvenile Justice and More; News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Opinion: A Broken Juvenile Justice System (The Baltimore Sun)
  Youthful offenders at Baltimore Detention Center won't be better off if the state builds a new $70 million juvenile jail; the whole policy of charging minors as adults needs rethinking.
• Times Editorial: Voters buy into Need for New Juvenile-Justice Center (The Seattle Times)
  Voters rightly grasped that this proposal was not about new jail beds, but about a critical investment in a public service. The alternative, sinking an estimated $40 million into repairing the current buildings, was not the answer.
• Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Many Minors May Stay in Prison for Life (ProPublica)
  Under the Supreme Court's ruling, minors can still get life without parole sentences — just not automatically after a conviction; instead a judge will need to decide, taking into account the minor's youth.

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Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Few Local Treatment Options Exist for Teens Addicted to Heroin (SantaFeNewMexican.com)
  Committing a crime seems to be one of the few ways for a Santa Fe teenager to get into treatment for heroin addiction. “We see a trend that in order to get treatment, people have to get into trouble first,” said Michael Santillanes, the education director of YouthWorks, a job training and education nonprofit serving at-risk youths.
• Peers Key in Fighting Drug Abuse (The Republic)
  The formation of a student group at Columbus East High School dedicated to fostering antidrug attitudes among their peers might not be precedent-setting, but the background to this particular group of young people is very definitely a positive sign.
• Teen Survival Expectations Predict Later Risk-Taking Behavior (ScienceDaily.com)
  New research published August 1 in the open access journal PLOS ONE reports that, for American teens, the expectation of death before the age of 35 predicted increased risk behaviors including substance abuse and suicide attempts later in life and a doubling to tripling of mortality rates in young adulthood.

David Backes writes the Friday news roundup for Reclaiming Futures and contributes articles about juvenile justice reform and adolescent substance abuse treatment to ReclaimingFutures.org. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Santa Clara University. David works as an account executive for Prichard Communications.