Blog: No bio box

Child Sex Abuse in Female Adjudicated Youth

By Savenia Falquis..., January 07 2013

The last 15 years of my professional focus has been working with youth and families with an emphasis on child sex abuse prevention. While working as a Juvenile Officer in Jefferson County Oregon (2002-2006), I provided gender specific services for our department. My role was to assess, develop and implement gender specific services. Girls Circle(1) curriculum and training was the best practice service that our department implemented in 2003.
We had eight female youth signed up for the class and averaged about five attending weekly. Within about 2 class sessions, I started to hear the girls talking about various types of sexual assaults. Unfortunately, there wasn’t specific group content that addressed child sex abuse and rape. With approval, I adjusted the curriculum to include an art project that would allow the girls to outline each other and color in their body outline with colors representing emotions. This was a very eye opening activity for myself and our department. The common theme in their color representations was scribbled hearts and black stomachs. The girls talked about feeling empty, numb and hopeless about their future. That was affirmation that child sex abuse was important for us to address with the female juvenile clients.
This was what made me realize that so many of the females that came into our Department had experienced child sex abuse and many times additional sexual assaults into their teen years. OJJDP promotes publications that site anywhere from 70-90% of adjudicated female juvenile’s have been sexually abused. Unfortunately, the data on males is very limited but because of high profile cases, it appears that more resources are focusing on males.
Lessons learned:

  • Child sex abuse is very real for a large percent of adjudicated juveniles
  • Grooming creates very deep seeded issues
  • JJO’s need child sex abuse training and assessment tools
  • Juvenile Officer’s have opportunities to address this root cause issue
  • Adult’s need education and training to talk about child sex abuse
  • Positive youth development activities really do work (especially child sex abuse focused)
  • Teens are very protective of the kids in their lives (they don’t want what happened to them happen to other kids)
  • Teaching ourselves and teens how to protect themselves and others from predators works

Topics: Juvenile Justice Reform, No bio box

SAMHSA: Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts Break Cycle of Drugs, Alcohol and Crime

By Liz Wu, January 07 2013

Across the country, juvenile treatment drug courts (JTDC) are helping teens achieve better outcomes by focusing on treatment and family engagement. JTDCs treat teens for both substance abuse problems and mental health issues, as needed. As David Morrissette, senior program manager at SAMHSA, explained to SAMHSA News, "up to 70 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have mental health disorders and more than 60 percent of those also have a substance use disorder."
The latest issue of SAMHSA News highlights a number of successful drug court programs, including Reclaiming Futures. From the article [emphasis mine]:

In a 2012 evaluation [ppt] examining data from 1,934 young people participating in drug courts at 17 CSAT grantee sites, evaluators found that participants saw a 26 percent increase in the number of days they abstained from alcohol and other drugs between intake and a 1-year follow-up. Participants' scores on a scale measuring emotional problems and difficulties with self-control declined by 16 percent. The average number of crimes reported dropped by half.
According to the evaluation, a more intensive approach to juvenile treatment drug courts called Reclaiming Futures reached youth with more severe problems, provided more services, and did an even better job of increasing abstinence, reducing emotional problems, and reducing criminal behavior.
...
"There are six stages in the [Reclaiming Futures] model," said SAMHSA Project Officer Holly Rogers, M.A. "These include screening and assessing young people to identify alcohol or substance use problems, coordinating services across agencies, helping kids and families make an initial contact with services, getting them actively engaged in services, and transitioning them out of services and into long-term supports, such as helping relationships and community resources."

Topics: Juvenile Treatment Drug Court, No bio box, Reclaiming Futures

Calling All Researchers: SAMHSA Opens Data for Research

By Liz Wu, January 04 2013

Calling all researchers! The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is opening up access to its Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) and National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) confidential data for research purposes. 
From the call for applications:

Through receipt, review and approval of applications, researchers may access confidential DAWN and NSDUH data through CBHSQ's new Data Portal system. The Data Portal is a secure virtual computing environment. It is designed to provide authorized researchers access to confidential data for approved research projects. The goal of the Data Portal is to maximize the use of data collected by CBHSQ for important research and policy analyses, while conforming to Federal law and protecting identifiable data from disclosure.
Access to the Data Portal is provided through approved computer location(s) and IP address(es) at the researcher's organization. Users are required to maintain the confidentiality of the data used in the Data Portal. Information cannot be transferred into or out of the secure Data Portal by researchers until a disclosure review is conducted by CBHSQ. CBHSQ will conduct site inspections of each approved applicant.

Topics: No bio box, SAMHSA

Juvenile Injustice; News Roundup

By David Backes, January 04 2013

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • Juvenile Injustice (Honolulu Weekly)
    A recent study finds that native Hawaiian youth are twice as likely to end up in the juvenile justice system (JJS) as any other ethnic group. And with youth employment at lower rates in 2011 than at any time during the prior decade, the problem may get worse.
  • Local Law Enforcement Officials See Drop in Juvenile Crime (Boston.com)
    From prosecutors to police officers on the street to the state Department of Youth Services, there is consensus that juvenile crime has declined in this region as well as the rest of the Massachusetts. Overall, juvenile crime is down 37 percent in Massachusetts from 2009 to 2011, according to a recent report by Citizens for Juvenile Justice, a research and advocacy group in Boston.
  • Juvenile Court Reform in Tennessee (The New York Times)
    The juvenile justice system in the United States is supposed to focus on rehabilitation for young offenders. But for generations, it has largely been a purgatory, failing to protect them or give them the help and counseling they need to become law-abiding adults. Children who end up in juvenile courts often do not get due process protections like written complaints presenting the charges against them, adequate notice about legal proceedings or meaningful assistance of counsel.
  • Meetings to be Held on Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in Kansas Criminal Justice System (DodgeGlobe.com)
    The state of Kansas is undertaking a statewide assessment on the extent to which minority youth are over-represented in the juvenile justice system. A series of public meetings will be held so that members of the public can hear the results of the study and to provide feedback to public officials involved in the juvenile justice system in Kansas.
  • Durbin Chairs First Hearing on School to Prison Pipeline (DailyHerald.com)
    U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin Wednesday chaired the first federal hearing looking at the relationship between schools and the criminal justice system. The hearing follows a recent change in Illinois law prompted by an attack on an Elgin teacher and subsequent Daily Herald investigation.
  • Juvenile Justice: State Sees Decrease in Incarcerated Youth (Amarillo.com)
    How times have changed for the Texas juvenile justice system. Five years ago, the number of youths locked up in state-run detention centers was about 4,700. Since then, the number has steadily dropped, and now it is less than 1,500 — more than a two-thirds reduction.

Topics: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, Juvenile Justice Reform, News, No bio box

SAMHSA Reports Encouraging Progress on Underage Drinking

By David Backes, January 03 2013

SAMHSA’s recent Report to Congress on the Prevention and Reduction of Underage Drinking 2012 shows positive impact on the reduction of underage drinking. Via the report,

From 2004 to 2010, young people ages 12 to 20 showed statistically significant declines in both past-month alcohol use and binge alcohol use. These encouraging results were most significant in the 12- to 17-year-old age group, where past-month alcohol use declined by 22.7 percent and past-month binge drinking declined by 29.7 percent.

The news isn’t all good though--in 2010, 37 percent of 20-year-olds reported binge drinking (drinking at levels substantially increasing the risk of injury or death) in the past 30 days; about 14 percent of 20-year-olds had, in those 30 days, binged five or more times.
Additional takeaways from the report include:

  • Alcohol is the most widely used substance of abuse among american youth
  • Binge drinking is the most common underage consumption pattern.
  • Female youth drinking rates are converging with male youth rates
  • Adolescents’ beverage preferences are shifting from beer to distilled spirits
  • Young people perceive alcohol to be readily available

Topics: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, No bio box

ABA Seeks Workshop Proposals for Children and Law Conference

By Liz Wu, January 02 2013

The American Bar Association is seeking workshop proposals for their national conference on children and the law. Held in Washington, DC, "Raising the Bar: Lawyers as Partners for Family Well-Being" will feature emerging child welfare policy and systemic reform issues and their effects on practice, children and families. 
Workshop proposals should address family well-being and ways to improve the skills of attorneys, judges and other advocates. Some of the topics likely to be covered at the conference include:

  • Lawyers’ Role in Prevention vs. Intervention
  • Bullying and Sexual Harassment
  • Educational Needs of Young People
  • School to Prison Pipeline
  • Representing Older Youth
  • Psychotropic Medication
  • Partnering with Social Services
  • Pregnant and Parenting Teens
  • Needs of Youth who Identify as LGBTQ
  • Evaluating Legal Representation Programs
  • Trauma-Informed Legal Representation
  • Child Trafficking
  • Representing Undocumented Young People and Parents
  • Interviewing Children
  • Mediation
  • Cross Over Representation
  • The Affordable Care Act and Transitioning/Transitioned Foster Youth
  • Minimizing Use of APPLA Goal

Topics: No bio box

Thousands More Teens Now Diverted from New York Juvenile Court

By Alec Hamilton, January 02 2013

Each year, more than 10,000 teens aged 15 and younger are arrested by police. They begin their journey into the criminal justice system with a visit to an intake officer at the Department of Probation. Increasingly, the trip stops there. In a remarkable turnaround, the probation department has become an off-ramp for thousands of teens each year, diverting them away from court and into short-term community programs.
The number of teens aged 15 and under whose cases have been “adjusted” and closed by the probation department increased 47 percent between 2009 and last year, and has more than doubled since 2006. In 2011, 4,564 teens under age 16 arrested in New York City—38 percent of the total—had their cases closed through adjustment, up from 3,107 two years earlier.
Today, the city funds nearly 30 community-based adjustment programs, serving just over 800 young people as of June. The terms of an adjustment can include restitution for victims and the completion of one of these special programs, which involve community service or other projects. Adjustment periods typically last 60 days, though they can be extended to four months with a judge’s approval. If a young person meets the terms, he or she walks away from the case with no need to go deeper into the justice system. And that’s exactly the point: Especially for low-level offenders, explains Deputy Commissioner of Probation Ana Bermudez, involvement with the justice system often does more harm than good. “There is significant research that youth outcomes actually deteriorate with court processing, particularly when you’re looking at low-risk youth,” she says. “You interfere with those supports that were making them low-risk in the first place.”

Topics: Juvenile Justice Reform, New York, No bio box

Top 5 Juvenile Justice Blog Posts | 2012

By Liz Wu, January 01 2013

And this is it, folks, the end of our countdown! We've already shared the top 25, top 20, top 15, and top 10. And now, here are the top 5 blog posts of 2012!
5. Scared Straight Programs Are All Talk
After "Scared Straight" became popular in the 1970s, a number of research reports evaluated children who went through the program compared to control groups and found that many of the youth who attended “scared straight” programs were actually worse off than the youth who had no intervention.
4. Punishment vs. Rehabilitation and the Effects of Trauma on High-Risk Youth
Studies show that 75 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have experienced traumatic events; 50 percent have endured post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Topics: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, Juvenile Life Without Parole, No bio box, Scared Straight, School-to-Prison Pipeline, Trauma, Washington

Top 6-10 Juvenile Justice Blog Posts | 2012

By Liz Wu, December 31 2012

We've counted down the top 25, 20 and 15 juvenile justice blog posts from 2012. Here are 6-10:
10. Missouri’s Unique Approach To Rehabilitating Teens in Juvenile Justice System
Missouri is changing the way it approaches rehabilitating teens in its juvenile justice system, and it’s working. With a focus on therapy and education rather than punishment, the state closed its training schools and large facilities with minimal schooling in the early 1980s.
9. Stop the Trauma. Start the Healing: A Latino Health Context
Latino children are the fastest growing population in the United States and over half will end up incarcerated, jobless, or dead at a young age. Recognizing this, the National Compadres Network released a brown paper explaining how transformational based healing can disrupt this cycle and improve health outcomes for Latino children.

Topics: JMATE, Missouri, No bio box, Social Impact Bonds, Texas, Trauma

Back on Track after Being Behind Bars; News Roundup

By David Backes, December 28 2012

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • A Flash Mob for Juvenile Justice Reform, Family Engagement and More (NJJN.org)
    Update from Youth Justice Leadership Institute Alumna, Rukia Lumumba: "To provide more visibility to the raise the age issue, I coordinated a flash mob in Times Square for YJAM (Youth Justice Awareness Month) in collaboration with my agency (the Center for Community Alternatives) and the Correctional Association of New York. Approximately 15 advocates and youth participated in the flash mob, which was viewed by hundreds of people in Times Square."
  • Letter: Juvenile Justice Sees Progress (TheAdvocate.com)
    Some good news about Louisiana’s success on the juvenile justice reform front was announced last week in the results of a nationwide study. While the news did not make headlines in state media, it is certainly noteworthy and indicative of the state’s reform progress. The study examined implementation of proven programs for juvenile offenders and indicated Louisiana as one of the five top states in adopting programs proven to be most effective in dealing with delinquent or violent youth and their families.
  • Back on Track after Being Behind Bars (FindYouthInfo.gov)
    Returning to society after being incarcerated isn’t easy. Yet a group of formerly incarcerated youth that recently met with U.S. Department of Education (ED) Secretary Arne Duncan and Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education Brenda Dann-Messier are refusing to let their past lives determine their future. They’re overcoming challenges and building better lives for themselves through grit and resilience.

Topics: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, Juvenile Justice Reform, News, No bio box

Top 11-15 Juvenile Justice Blog Posts | 2012

By Liz Wu, December 27 2012

Continuing our countdown of the top blog posts from 2012, here's 15 - 11.
15. Bryan Stevenson at TED2012 on Injustice, Juvenile Justice System, Need for Reform
"How can a judge turn a child into an adult?" That's a question lawyer Bryan Stevenson has spent years asking. 
14. Rethinking Juvenile Justice: Promoting the Health and Well-Being of Crossover Youth
A recent report by the Conrad Hilton Foundation found “membership in the crossover group to be a strong and consistent predictor of less desirable [adult] outcomes,” including heavy use of public services, high likelihood of criminal justice involvement, lower educational attainment, and extremely high use of outpatient mental health treatment.
13. The Relationship Between Substance Abuse and Teen Crime
Consistent and substantial evidence exists that supports the relationship between substance abuse and criminal behaviors in youth.

Topics: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, Juvenile Justice Reform, No bio box

Top 16-20 Juvenile Justice Blog Posts | 2012

By Liz Wu, December 26 2012

Continuing our countdown of the top juvenile justice blog posts of 2012, here are numbers 16-20:
20. Lessons from Death Row Inmates: Reform the Juvenile Justice System
In looking for ways to reduce the number of death penalty cases, David R. Dow realized that a surprising number of death row inmates had similar biographies -- they started out as economically disadvantaged and otherwise troubled kids.
19. Youth Transfers to the Adult Corrections System More Likely to Reoffend
Juveniles transferred to adult corrections systems reoffend at a higher rate than those who stay in the juvenile justice system, according to a recent report from the National Institute of Corrections (NIC).
18. Beating the School-to-Prison Pipeline by Focusing on Truancy, Absenteeism
There is a strong correlation between missing school in the elementary years and winding up in jail, explains a Superior Court Judge.

Topics: Juvenile Justice Reform, No bio box, School-to-Prison Pipeline, Trauma

Top 21-25 Juvenile Justice Blog Posts | 2012

By Liz Wu, December 24 2012

This has been quite a year for our juvenile justice blog. Not only has readership more than doubled (thank you!) but we've partnered with a number of great organizations and journalists to provide you with more frequent analysis, research and ideas for reform.
As last year, our articles explaining why "Scared Straight" tactics do more harm than good, continue to be some of our most-read and shared posts. But this year, we also took a look at the effects of trauma on kids, raise-the-age efforts and the Supreme Court decision to ban life without the option of parole for juveniles. 
This week, we're doing a countdown of the top 25 stories from 2012.
25. Mentoring: Best Practices for High Risk Youth
Mentoring has been shown to reduce drug and alcohol use and help justice-involved teens get back on track. Jessica Jones share five best practices for a successful mentoring program.
24. Inside the Juvenile Justice System: A Look at How the System Works
While readers may be familiar with the criminal system through tv shows, the juvenile system is less well-known and understood. The County of San Diego explains the juvenile system.

Topics: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, Juvenile Justice Reform, Mentoring, No bio box, Trauma

The Crime Report's Person of the Year; News Roundup

By David Backes, December 21 2012

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • The Crime Report's Person of the Year (TheCrimeReport.org)
    A New York University law professor who persuaded the Supreme Court to extend its ban on mandatory sentences of life without parole (LWOP) for juveniles to young people convicted of murder—and thereby dramatically transformed the landscape of juvenile justice—is The Crime Report’s choice for Criminal Justice Person of the Year in 2012.
  • Georgia Juvenile Justice Reform Recommendations Would Lock Up Fewer to Save Millions (AJC.com)
    Georgia should save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year by diverting some juveniles away from detention facilities and into community-based programs, according to a group tasked with reviewing the state’s criminal justice system. The state’s Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians recommends reversing some of the harsher policies of the 1990s on how Georgia punishes its youngest offenders.
  • Discussing Juvenile Justice with "Pure Politics" In Kentucky (RightOnCrime.com)
    Last month, Right On Crime’s Jeanette Moll traveled to Kentucky to present research on juvenile justice to stakeholders involved in reforming several aspects of the state juvenile system — including how it handles status offenders. A task force in Kentucky is studying the issue, and it is looking for lessons from Texas’s experience.
  • Department of Justice Enters into Agreement to Reform the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee (Justice.gov)
    The Department of Justice announced that it has entered into a comprehensive memorandum of agreement with the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, Tenn., to resolve findings of serious and systemic failures in the juvenile court that violate children’s due process and equal protection rights.
  • Improving Juvenile Justice (MiamiHerald.com)
    Florida Department of Juvenile Justice officials and staff are traveling around the state to educate stakeholders and citizens on the reach of its new “Roadmap to System Excellence” plan. What the plan does is sets Florida on a new path in this endlessly fraught area of juvenile delinquency and its prevention. As president/CEO of the Florida Network, I stand with DJJ secretary Wansley Walters and this bold plan.
  • Harsher Discipline Often Dispensed to Minority, Disabled Students (NationalJournal.com)
    Students of color and those with disabilities receive harsher punishment in schools, punishments that are often a precursor to their entry into the juvenile justice system, The Washington Post reports. Each year, more than 3 million children are expelled or suspended from schools, according to Civil Rights Data Collection figures released last spring by the Education Department. During analysis of 72,000 schools in the 2009-10 academic year, at least 240,000 students were referred to law enforcement.

Topics: Adolescent Mental Health, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, Juvenile Justice Reform, News, No bio box

Removing the Blinders: Acknowledging the Unique Needs of Girls of Color in the Juvenile Justice System

By Jyoti Nanda, December 20 2012

As anyone who knows about the juvenile justice system will tell you, girls who are in the system are there because of a history of abuse. But why girls are there and the unique needs faced by girls of color is something largely ignored, even by those working in the justice system. For example, we know that girls’ brains develop earlier than boys do; we also know that so do their bodies. Unique factors such as these are precisely why I recently wrote and presented, “Blind Discretion: Girls of Color and Delinquency in the Juvenile Justice System.”
The juvenile justice system was designed to empower its decisionmakers with a wide grant of discretion in hopes of better addressing youth in a more individualistic and holistic, and therefore more effective, manner. Unfortunately for girls of color in the system, this discretionary charter given to police, probation officers, and especially judges has operated without sufficiently acknowledging and addressing their unique position. Indeed, the dearth of adequate gender/race intersectional analysis in the research and stark absence of significant system tools directed at the specific characteristics of and circumstances faced by girls of color has tracked alarming trends such as the rising number of girls in the system and relatively harsher punishment they receive compared to boys for similar offenses. This willful blindness must stop.

Topics: Gender-Specific, Girls, Juvenile Justice Reform, No bio box

The High Cost of Convicting Teens as Adults

By Andrew White, December 20 2012

The policy of trying 16- and 17-year-old nonviolent offenders as adults in criminal court has a damaging effect on the lifetime earnings potential of nearly 1,000 teenaged New Yorkers each year—costing them an estimated, cumulative total of between $50 million and $60 million in lost income over the course of their lives.
A Child Welfare Watch analysis demonstrates that the policy of trying 16- and 17-year-old nonviolent felony and misdemeanor offenders in adult criminal court has a high cost in foregone wages for each annual cohort of 16- and 17-year-olds that passes through the adult criminal courts, and also costs the government unknown millions in lost taxes.
The Watch reached its estimate using a method similar to that applied by researchers at the Vera Institute of Justice when they performed a 2011 cost-benefit analysis for a North Carolina state legislature task force. At the time, North Carolina was considering a legislative change that would have shifted cases of 16- and 17-year-olds charged with nonviolent crime to the state’s juvenile system.
Our analysis did not approach the full scope of the North Carolina study. Instead, we adapted one particular component—the cost of the current policy in lost earnings potential for young people tried in adult court who end up with a permanent criminal record. The authors of the North Carolina analysis calculated the loss in wages over a lifetime, finding that the average net present value of the earning differential between people with a record and those without totals $61,691 per person.

Topics: Juvenile Justice Reform, New York, No bio box, North Carolina

Teens Learn Teamwork and Patience by Building Gingerbread Houses

By Khrystal Wagner, December 19 2012

Hardin County Reclaiming Futures was recently invited to speak to a local church group about their Recovery School (Hardin Community School) and Hardin County Reclaiming Futures Juvenile Drug Court. The church members loved hearing about the community initiative and wanted to reach out to the local youth by donating funds for a gingerbread house project.
The project began on December 10, 2012 for the Recovery School students who had a week to complete their houses. Now that the houses are finished, we are holding a contest on our Facebook page for the best houses. Hardin County’s Reclaiming Futures Fellows are also invited to come in for judging and awarding prizes.  Almost the entire student body at the recovery school turned out to participate in the project.
Most students anticipated doing their own gingerbread house, but quickly realized that the task was not as easy as one would think and most began working together as teams to build the walls and the roofs. The houses were made of graham crackers and held together by a special icing to help hold the structure together. Decorations were available as multiple assortments of candies.  

Topics: No bio box, Ohio, Positive Youth Development, Reclaiming Futures

Racial Discrimination Linked to Higher Risk of Crime

By David Backes, December 19 2012

Dr. Callie Burt, assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, recently published a report with her colleagues, Ronald L. Simons and Frederick X. Gibbons, linking racial discrimination with criminal behavior. The paper, Racial Discrimination, Ethnic-Racial Socialization, and Crime, reported that experiencing more racial discrimination was linked to a higher risk of crime, specifically in African-American males.
Burt set out to take another look at racism in interpersonal violence and crime to answer the question, what is it about racist actions that can cause an increased risk of crime later in life? She found that racial discrimination primarily does four things to individuals:

Topics: Disproportionate Minority Contact, No bio box

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