Roundup: Juvenile Justice Reform in the Spotlight

• The "Missouri Model" was featured on ABC's Primetime show this week: more good press for the importance of rehabilitation and treatment for youth in the justice system. (Click through to see show segments.) UPDATE: Youth Today also has an update on efforts to replicate the Missouri Model around the nation.
• Meanwhile, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice released a key, first-of-its-kind report on the states' compliance with the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), which is up for renewal this year. Reauthorization of the JJDPA is supported by the American Psychological Association (APA), and this week, Marian Wright Edelman posted a widely-noted editorial urging renewal of the JJDPA and congressional support for promising models of juvenile justice reform, such as the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, Models for Change, and the Missouri Model. 

• Online counseling treating depression has been shown to be as effective as in-person counseling. Be interesting to see if that holds for drug treatment, and if youth would respond better to online treatment than adults.
• In prevention news, the Communities that Care "system" of evidence-based programs helps communities cut teen crime and binge drinking by over 30%. (Here's a feature on the experience of a town in Maine.) 
• Ohio's rolling out a new web-based juvenile justice risk assessment statewide; the US Department of Justice hopes it'll be a model for other states.
• According to Youth Today's John Kelly, the Supreme Court's set to hear key juvenile life-without-parole cases November 9th that could potentially restrict any state's ability to impose that sentence.
• An audit of Illinois' juvenile justice system revealed some problems.
• Feds "throw the book" at the two former Pennsylvania judges involved in the "cash-for-kids" juvenile justice scandal.
• The ACLU released a proposed model governance document for school police.

Webinar

• Learn more about the amazing power of "Changing Lives Through Literature," an alternative sentencing program that has been successfully used to help turn around the lives of adult and juvenile offenders. Free webinar on 9/17.