New Nonprofit Will Aid Children in Adult Prisons; News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Researcher: Juvenile justice Should Focus on Reform, Not Punishment (JournalStar.com)
  Punishment-based juvenile justice programs aren’t as effective at reforming delinquent youngsters as those that work to identify and mitigate factors that trigger their delinquent behavior, a renowned juvenile justice researcher said Wednesday.

• Jail Reform Coalition Seeks Justice System Change (The Californian)
  Louisiana native Helen Rucker, of Seaside, recalled with clarity her years living under "separate but equal" standards, also known as Jim Crow laws. Now, with black and Latino men incarcerated in droves in California, the system has simply created a new set of Jim Crow standards, she said.

• Pipeline to Prison: How the Juvenile Justice System Fails Special Education Students (JJIE)
  A special education student, Jennings qualified for extra help in school. Those services should have carried over to the justice system, but Jennings said he never even attended class while in jail. Now 20, he is still unable to read or write.
• New Nonprofit Will Aid Children in Adult Prisons (NonprofitQuarterly.org)
  According to the Equal Justice Initiative, nearly 10,000 children across the country have been sentenced as adults and are serving time in adult prisons. Pennsylvania, which has the highest number of incarcerated children serving life sentences and no minimum age to try a child as an adult, is now also home to the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP), a new nonprofit dedicated to aiding Philadelphia’s children who have been prosecuted and are carrying out their sentences in the adult criminal justice system.

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!

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Mental Health

• Researchers Examine Rates of Suicidal Thoughts Among First-time Offenders (UTSA.edu)
  Researchers at UTSA and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) are approaching data obtained from mental health screenings of offenders in the juvenile justice system in a new way, especially as it pertains to Hispanic youth.

• Help, Not Incarceration (The Epoch Times)
  The latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) estimate that more than 1.26 million mentally ill adults are detained in the country’s jails and prisons. Some cities are trying to change this statistic through programs that offer some of these nonviolent offenders a way out of incarceration, and a chance to improve their lives.

• Teen Outreach Program Helps Roanoke Teens Avoid Common Pitfalls of Adolescence (WDBJ7)
  The Teen Outreach Program matches teens with volunteer opportunities to help build self-esteem, and avoid problems like teen pregnancy and substance abuse.

• The Impact of Hurricane Sandy on Mental Health: What More We Could Have Done (Huffington Post)
  "Superstorm Sandy," as it was called, rained vast devastation along the northeastern coast of the United States. Mental health problems (as well as the abuse of alcohol and drugs) in the wake of a disaster are well known. This is because disaster, however generated, threatens to undermine both the physical and emotional underpinnings of a community. Perhaps some of the greatest knowledge about disaster mental health was sadly gained after the attacks of 9/11 (1).