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My ears perked up on Monday when NPR broadcast an interview with the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Acting Director Michael Botticelli.  Earlier this year while accompanying Reclaiming Futures Executive Director Susan Richardson to Washington D.C. I had the chance to briefly meet Acting Director Botticelli, and knew he was highly thought of by the federal juvenile justice staff members  with whom we work.  On August 28, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Botticelli as the Director of ONDCP.

The interview I heard was conducted by NPR’s All Things Considered host, Robert Siegel. In the interview, Mr. Siegel sounded impressed that Acting Director Botticelli publicly acknowledges that he was a recovering alcoholic (25 years). He went on to ask questions about the drug issues of our day, particularly marijuana legalization and prescription pain medication abuse.

What stood out to me, as an advocate for Reclaiming Futures, a parent and as someone who has worked for an agency treating kids with serious drug addictions (mostly marijuana), were the questions to Botticelli about marijuana legalization and his call for dealing with the issue of addiction through a public health lens.

Botticelli spoke about drugs as a public health issue, emphasizing treatment as well as intervention and prevention, a perspective Reclaiming Futures embraces. He also talked about the marketing of marijuana in states where it has become a business and the escalating use of the drug.  He expressed concern that a growing number of teens now see marijuana as less dangerous than tobacco.

“We see escalating use. We know that marijuana is addictive. About 1 in 9 people who use marijuana regularly become addicted,” Botticelli said.

Later, Siegel asked, “Should we stop talking about a war on drugs? Is it - is that a metaphor that does not describe exactly what you've just been talking about?”

Botticelli responded that, “We need to deal with addiction and drug use as a public health issue. We need a more compassionate and humane criminal justice response to this issue. I was one of those with my own level of involvement in the criminal justice system and was given a second chance to be a productive citizen. And that's the response that we want for all Americans.”

The interview also includes an important conversation about prescription painkillers as well. You can listen to, or read a transcript of, the full interview here.

Image by Robert Ashworth via Flickr

National Council on Crime and Delinquency’s (NCCD) announced the winners of its 2014 Media for a Just Society Awards. These awards are the only national recognition of media whose work furthers public understanding of criminal justice, juvenile justice, and child welfare issues.

More than 150 entries from 50 different outlets contended to win the categories of book, film, magazine, newspaper, radio, TV/video, web, and youth media. Each of the winning entries was recognized for “[telling] the stories we need to hear to help us create social change and right injustice.”

The winners are as follows:

Book: Men We Reaped: A Memoir, Jesmyn Ward, Bloomsbury USA

Film: Gideon’s Army, Dawn Porter, Trilogy Films

Magazine: “With 2.3 Million People Incarcerated in the US, Prisons Are Big Business,” Liliana Segura, The Nation

Newspaper: “Split the Baby: Two Sides of an Adoption Battle,” Olivia LaVecchia, City Pages

Radio: “Going to Rikers Island,” Maria Hinojosa, Latino USA (NPR)

TV/Video: “Our Turn to Dream,” Brittany Washington, Jordan Melograna, and Jesse Lava, Brave New Films

Web: “The Fight for Black Men,” Joshua DuBois, The Daily Beast/Newsweek

Youth Media: “Life Under Suspicion: Youth Perspectives on NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk Policy,” Raelene Holmes-Andrews, Educational Video Center

Distinguished Achievement Award in Film: Fruitvale Station, written and directed by Ryan Coogler

Leading up to the Oct. 15 awards ceremony, the NCCD will publish blog posts going behind the scenes with this year’s finalists and winners. For more information on this year’s Media for a Just Society Awards, visit the NCCD website.

Watch the youth media submission in full here.

 
Life Under Suspicion full documentary from JODML on Vimeo.

A recent study conducted by Florida’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the University of Florida revealed that juvenile offenders in Florida have significantly higher rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than the population as a whole.

This conclusion from the study—The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) in the Lives of Juvenile Offenders—is compared to the previous study by the CDC, which discovered a link between childhood adversity and the adult onset of chronic disease, mental illness, violence and becoming a victim of violence.

The 10 adverse childhood experiences measured in the Florida research and the CDC’s ACE Study were the same:

• Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse
• Emotional and physical neglect
• Witnessing a mother being abused
• Household substance abuse
• Household mental illness
• Losing a parent to separation or divorce
• Having an incarcerated household member

Half of the Florida juveniles reported four or more ACEs, compared with 13 percent of those in the CDC’s ACE Study. Young people with four ACEs are twice as likely to be smokers, 12 times more likely to attempt suicide, seven times more likely to be alcoholic, and 10 times more likely to inject street drugs.

The Department of Juvenile Justice incorporates trauma-informed practices into many of its programs due to the higher rates of certain individual types of trauma among juvenile justice-involved youth.

This study provides further evidence to support these practices that create safe environments for young people to avoid re-traumatizing them and to facilitate participation of trauma survivors in the planning of services and programs.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Arlington Mural is an Outlet for At-Risk Teens (Herald Net)
  The teens are part of Promising Artists in Recovery, or PAIR, an eight-week program for at-risk youth who have had dealings with the Denney Juvenile Justice Center.

• REDEEM Act Aims to Fix Criminal Justice System (StopTheDrugWar.org)
  "The REDEEM Act will ensure that our tax dollars are being used in smarter, more productive ways. It will also establish much-needed sensible reforms that keep kids out of the adult correctional system, protect their privacy so a youthful mistake can remain a youthful mistake, and help make it less likely that low-level adult offenders re-offend," said Sens. Cory Booker.

• L.A. Schools Program Aims to Keep Kids out of Courts (JIE)
  The nation’s second-largest school district — Los Angeles Unified — is unveiled a sweeping new agreement to curb police involvement in minor school discipline and campus problems.
• D.C. Defense Attorneys Want Juveniles Released From Shackles in Court (The Washington Post)
  “They have been shackling kids who have no violent past. It’s a horrible thing. A lot of these kids are nonviolent offenders. We don’t want to send them down the wrong path by shackling somebody who doesn’t need to be shackled,” D.C. Council member David Grosso said.
  

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!

Meet Lucy.

Lucy is one of two highly trained therapy dogs in the Prosecuting Attorney’s office. Lucy has several important roles.

She provides support and comfort to victims of trauma and abuse. Lucy helps break the ice when children are asked to talk about sexual and/or physical abuse. She is in the courtroom, hidden from jurors, sitting with children as they testify in court. Some families also request that Lucy sit with them as they watch the trials of people accused of killing their loved ones.

Lucy is also the newest member of Snohomish County’s juvenile drug treatment court. She and her handler, Kathy Murray, attend staffing and are also present in the courtroom. Lucy lies near the bench on her blanket.  She provides support for the youth while in the courtroom.

She also helps the team. It’s tough on the team members when a youth has not succeeded in breaking free from their addiction.  Having Lucy there helps ease frustration and sadness and keeps the team focused on helping every youth in drug court have the best chance of success.

Kathy, Lucy’s handler, is also developing a program that will allow drug court youth who like animals to earn community service credit by working with Lucy one on one. As part of the program Kathy will provide a short training session to teach youth about giving commands and proper grooming. Not only will this teach the youth proper handling techniques, having Lucy follow their commands  will also provide them with a sense of accomplishment.

We’re very fortunate in Snohomish County to have a Prosecuting Attorney that cares so passionately about victims of trauma, their families and our drug courts.

We are also grateful to Canine Companions for Independence, a private non-profit organization that breeds and trains dogs, primarily for people with disabilities, for providing Lucy.

By 19, Shaka Senghor had been shot three times and killed a man. After going through his darkest times in prison, leading to solitary confinement, Senghor had an awakening that led him to where he is today. In a March TEDTalk: Why Your Worst Deeds Don’t Define You, Senghor shared his powerful story of incarceration, rehabilitation and transformation.

After receiving a meaningful letter from his son, Senghor started to truly examine his past and the decisions he had made. This began his transformation, and these four key things kept his recovery moving forward:

1. His mentors, who forced him to look at his life honestly and challenged his decision-making.
2. Literature: While in prison, Senghor was inspired by many black poets, authors and philosophers whose words helped him heal. Senghor references the autobiography of Malcolm X as significant in shattering the stereotypes he believed about himself.
3. Family: Senghor knew he couldn’t truly heal without his father by his side, and he thanks the mother of his children for teaching him how to love himself.
4. Writing opened Senghor’s mind to the idea of atonement and helped him start to forgive himself. It also ignited a spark to share his reflections to help other incarcerated men and women begin to heal.

Senghor believes that rehabilitation is the most important element missing from the juvenile justice system, as not everyone has the support system around them that he did. He claims that it is our responsibility to change the tide to ultimately improve our society as a whole:

“The majority of men and women who are incarcerated are redeemable. Ninety percent of [incarcerated men and women] will return to the community, and we have a role in determining what kind of men and women return to the community.”

The ‘lock them up and throw away the key’ mentality, as Senghor calls it, is the main mindset he claims needs to change. Instead, he calls for society to embrace a more empathetic approach to allow more incarcerated youths and adults redeem themselves from past deeds and not be “held hostage to their past.” He believes each person needs the support to do three things that will begin recovery:

Moving toward the next step in determining reliable practices that reduce youth crime, the National Juvenile Justice Network and the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange launched a new Evidence-Based Practices section of the Juvenile Justice Resource Hub. This news hub will no doubt become a toolkit for policy makers as evidence-based programs and models become more prevalent.

Why is evidence-based important?

Beyond the fact that evidence-based practices are scientifically evaluated and proven to be effective in reducing crime, they also carry long-term benefits that directly affect communities. According to the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, distinct benefits include:

• Improving public safety
• Improved outcomes for youth and families
• Saving money
• Technical assistance
• Community support

The new evidence-based resource offers information on key issues, reform trends, experts in the field and resources. As Reclaiming Futures implements evidence-based screening, assessment and treatment, we’re happy to see this new resource become widely available.

Read more and share this new valuable resource here.

Below you’ll find a selection of the latest grants, jobs, webinars and events posted to our Opportunity Board. 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!

Webinars

• Taking Family Driven to Scale: Self-Assessment of Family-Driven Practices: 8/19
• Co-Occurring Disorders and System of Care: 8/21
• "What Works To Promote Success For Youth In the Juvenile Justice System": 9/4
• Four-Minute Mile: Breaking Barriers of Peer Support in Juvenile Justice: 9/10
• Measuring and Using Juvenile Recidivism Data to Inform Policy, Practice, and Resource Allocation: 9/11

Events

• 2015 National Mentoring Summit: Jan. 28-30

Jobs

• Research Analyst/Associate 

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Oregon School Shooting: Tech Fair Starts Long-term Effort to Help Reynolds Students Recover (Oregon Live)
  "Our real focus is to build community again and bring kids into the building in a non-threatening way," said Kristen England, a program administrator for student services in the school district.
• The Skinny on Evidence-Based Practices (JJIE)
  Social scientist Robert Martinson famously concluded in 1974 that “nothing works” to change the behavior of people encountering the justice system. Fortunately, we’ve come a long way since then.

• Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Bill 2014 Introduced in the Lok Sabha (India TV)
  After years of wait, the government has finally introduced the Juvenile Justice Care and protection Bill 2014 in the Lok Sabha today. This Act will give power to the Juvenile Justice Board to decide if juveniles between the ages of 16 – 18 should be tried as adults for crimes like murder and rape.
• House members Appointed to Juvenile Justice Task Force (West Virginia Record)
  “West Virginia has the highest rate of 16-19 year-olds who are neither in school, nor in the labor force, while 30 percent of children under the age of six are living in poverty – the odds are stacked against them,” Delegate Stephen Skinner said. “We must provide effective case management, and expose at-risk youth to instruction and reinforcement for proactive, acceptable social behaviors."

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!