Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Memphis Seeking Alternatives to Locking up Wayward Youths (The Commercial Appeal)
  National experts arrived in Memphis to help guide juvenile justice officials, law enforcement and community leaders Tuesday on reforming a system that has been cited for disparate treatment of black youths.
• Departing Georgia Juvenile Boss: Crisis Passed (JJIE.org)
  After serving for nearly one year, Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice Commissioner Gale Buckner announces her departure, with a parting message for the agency, “the crisis stage is passed and we’re on to better opportunities.”
• Mayor Highlights "Close To Home" Juvenile Justice Program (NY1.com)
  Juvenile offenders are now living within New York's five boroughs and attending schools here after years of serving time upstate. The Close to Home initiative transfers the majority of young offenders to the city's control from the state. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in Brooklyn Thursday to highlight the program. NY1's Zack Fink filed the following report.
• Morgan State Forum Illuminates Justice System's Racial Disparity (The Baltimore Sun)
  Nearly every juvenile housed in Baltimore's adult prison in August — 41 of 42 — was black, an issue that brought more than 300 stakeholders together Wednesday at Morgan State University to discuss racial disparity in the criminal justice system.
• New York to Try Again to ‘Raise the Age’ (JJIE.org)
  New York state 16- and 17-year-olds go to adult court, a practice nearly unique to the state. But that may change, as the New York legislature is expected to take another look at proposals to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
• Number Of Juveniles Behind Fences At South Carolina Department Of Juvenile Justice Drops Dramatically (WJBF.com)
  The number of juveniles behind the razor wire at the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has dropped to 95, down from 175 two years ago. DJJ Director Margaret Barber says there are a number of reasons why, including the fact that juvenile crime overall is down nationwide and in South Carolina.
• Reforms Credited for Driving Juvenile Crime Down in North Carolina (NewsObserver.com)
  In the last couple of decades, combating teen crime and gangs in North Carolina attracted the attention of legislators, policymakers and a governor. Now there’s evidence that their solutions are working. While overall violent crimes have declined by nearly 14 percent in the state since 2002, the number of teens under 16 charged with violent crimes has dropped by nearly 37 percent.
• Georgia Judge: Schools--Not Courts--Should Handle Truancy (RightOnCrime.com)
  Truancy cases are increasingly referred to courts across the country rather than handled between schools and the parents. This process is expensive, ties up court resources from more pressing public safety priorities, and is ineffective in addressing chronic absenteeism.

PBS Newshour has an in-depth piece out on bath salts: their origins, growing popularity and (adverse) effects. It's particularly interesting to learn how bath salts actually affect the brain. From the article:

Taking bath salts, it seemed, was similar to taking amphetamine and cocaine at the same time. Except for one thing: MDPV is as much as 10 times stronger than cocaine.

Imagine the space between the nerve cells as a kitchen sink and the water as dopamine. In the brain's natural state, the faucet, or nerve cell endings, are always leaking some dopamine, and the drain is always slightly open, vacuuming some of the chemical back into the cell. Methamphetamine turns the faucet on high. Cocaine closes the drain. Bath salts, researchers discovered, do both at the same time. With the faucet on and the drain closed, the water overflows. In other words, the drug was flooding the brain.

King County Reclaiming Futures is aligning their recovery work with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's revised definition and vision of recovery:

 “A process of change through which individuals work to improve their own health and wellbeing, live a self-directed life, and strive to achieve their full potential.”

Please take a moment to review the new "performance indicator" report, released by the King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) Mental Illness, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division (MHCADSD).
A few highlights from the summary:

• Successful grant applications
• High quality programs
• A wide range of services
• Strong policymaker outreach

Despite difficult fiscal times, King County also made significant progress transforming to a Recovery Oriented System of Care (ROSC). They continue to focus on evidence-based practices throughout their system and increase provider capacity to use evidence-based service models. 

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Does the Juvenile Justice System Really Work? (TheCrimeReport.org)
  A five-month-long investigation spearheaded by Ashley Luthern of The Vindicator in Youngstown, Ohio examined the successes and tragedies produced as local courts, probation and schools struggle to address “disproportionate minority contact rates.”
• Frequency Of Kids Sent To Detention Varies Widely (Courant.com)
  Juveniles in the Hartford, Connecticut judicial district who break the law are far more likely to be locked in a pre-trial detention center following arrests or referrals than juveniles from the state's other districts, an analysis of data from the judicial department shows.
• 12 Investigates: Can Brain Injury Lead to Prison? (NBC12.com)
  Are more kids ending up in jail because of a traumatic brain injury? A study underway of Virginia's Juvenile Justice system recently revealed as many as 20% of the children incarcerated right now have a traumatic brain injury.
• Juvenile Justice System Youths Express Themselves in Play (OregonLive.com)
  Over the summer, a group of youths in the Clackamas County, Oregon juvenile justice system prepared a performance that was central to who they are. They received a standing ovation for their show, "Choices," and for their courage in telling their stories.

In beautiful Hocking County, Ohio, about an hour southeast of Columbus, Juvenile Court intake numbers are high due to drug-related offenses. The court has seen the kinship population grow (grandparents and other relatives taking over care of youth) mainly due to the increase in drug abuse and drug-related offenses.
Like all of the 29 Reclaiming Futures sites, Hocking County is partnering with courts, treatment providers, juvenile justice, communities and families to meet the urgent needs of young people in the juvenile justice system.
Judge Richard Wallar says it best in a Recovery Month letter in the Logan Daily News:

Please do not lose hope because there is good news. Many local people, including neighbors, relatives and friends, are receiving help and are in recovery from mental health or substance abuse disorders. They are contributing to our businesses, connecting with their families, and giving back to the community. But if we want more people to join them on a path of recovery, we need to take action — now. Too many people are still unaware that treatment works, and that these conditions can be alleviated, in the same way that other health disorders, such as diabetes and hypertension, are being treated. We need to work together to make recovery the expectation.

In celebration of Recovery Month, we honor the Reclaiming Futures Hocking County team for:

Many of the 29 Reclaiming Futures sites helping communities break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime celebrate Recovery Month, hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) each September. They, along with our King County site, which includes Seattle, Washington, are spreading the positive message that prevention works, adolescent substance abuse treatment is effective and people do recover. 
King County convenes a multi-disciplinary planning committee (chemical dependency, mental health and community mobilization) to reach people across cultures and disciplines to reduce the stigma for people in recovery.
They actively develop the Recovery Oriented System of Care model, starting with mental health and gradually including substance use disorders. This year, King County is working with their County Council to include substance abuse disorders in the recovery ordinance so that it becomes a behavioral health recovery oriented system of care. (The recovery ordinance ensures that the publicly funded mental health system in King County is grounded in mental health recovery principles.)

The more friends a student has, the more likely s/he is to smoke cigarettes. Findings from a recent report show that popular teens are succumbing to peer pressure to smoke cigarettes at a younger age.
Researchers from the Journal of Adolescent Health surveyed 1,950 ninth and 10th grade students to determine their personal thoughts about smoking and their thoughts about peers smoking. Report data show that a student’s risk of smoking is increased by the level of popularity s/he holds among peers. Popularity was measured by the number of times a student’s name was mentioned as a friend. An egocentric measure of behavior also proved that having friends who smoke leads to a strong association of individual smoking habits. Survey results found friend selection to be a major factor behind behavior habits; teens with friends who smoked were more susceptible to becoming a smoker themselves.
Continual evidence shows that popular kids choosing to light up are using their popularity to pressure other students to do the same. Peer pressure is a large indicator in adolescent behavior and “we haven’t done enough to make smoking un-cool” said study author Thomas Valente. Studies show that students will try what the majority is doing in order to be liked, and smoking is a popular, but negative, product of that behavior. If teens think smoking is the popular behavior among their peers, they will be more likely to try smoking.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Illinois to Improve Conditions at Youth Prisons (St. Louis CBS Local)
  Illinois is promising to improve safety at its youth prisons and offer inmates better educational and mental health services. The Department of Juvenile Justice agreed to the improvements after the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois threatened to sue.
• U.S. Families Fret at Juvenile Justice System in Crisis (The Raw Story)
  Relatives of jailed young Americans called Tuesday for reform of a juvenile justice system they say fails to help young people and is biased against youth of color. “More than two million children are arrested every year in the United States and the numbers continue to rise, despite the decreasing incidence of true criminal offenses,” according to the study released by the Justice for Families program at the research organization DataCenter.
• Imprisoned Teens Found More Likely to Re-offend (Jacksonville.com)
  A new report shows that children and teenagers locked up for breaking the law have become 6 percent more likely to commit another crime than they were in 2003. The figures come from a study conducted by the Pew Center on the States at the request of a commission appointed to propose an overhaul to the juvenile-justice system in Georgia.
• GIVING BACK - Troubled Youths get Chance to Serve Community through DJJ Initiative (TheTandD.com)
  A group of local youths spent Friday morning working with officers at the Orangeburg County, SC Department of Juvenile Justice as part of Restoring Carolina Through Youth Service. The program is a statewide initiative that gives young people who have made poor choices an opportunity to give back through community service.
• Juvenile Court Records can Follow Kids to College (The Morning Call)
  Juvenile court records could begin following youthful offenders to college after a state appeals court decision in the child pornography case of a Whitehall Township teen. The Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld a Lehigh County judge's decision to notify the boy's university that he had admitted looking at and trading child pornography over the Internet.
• Michael Griffiths: The TT Interview (The Texas Tribune)
  Michael Griffiths never really retired after 15 years as head of juvenile services for the Dallas County Juvenile Department. He taught online courses at his alma mater, Sam Houston State University, and consulted on juvenile issues, and he even handed out programs at Texas Rangers games. On Monday, Griffiths will become the new executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

For the 29 Reclaiming Futures sites using evidence-based practices to break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime, September holds special promise. This is the 23rd year the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has designated September Recovery Month to promote the message that prevention works, treatment is effective and people recover. 
This year's Recovery Month theme is "Join the Voices for Recovery: It's Worth It." The theme emphasizes the benefits of preventing and overcoming mental and/or substance use disorders and the importance of involving everyone in these efforts.
Please visit Recovery Month on SAMHSA.gov to find events, planning tools and other resources to help your community participate. Involvement can be as simple or robust as you choose. 
A few ideas include:

• Send an e-card to someone in recovery
• Customize a public service announcement
• Use use the hashtag #recoverymonth to find and promote information on Twitter
• Issue an official proclamation in your community

How do you celebrate Recovery Month? We appreciate hearing from you. Please share your ideas and comments below.  

In honor of Recovery Month, I'm sharing the Road to Recovery's latest video on the importance of community-based organizations. Reclaiming Futures is a huge believer in connecting young people with long-term community supports so that teens don't find themselves in the same situations that got them in trouble. 

From the Road to Recovery: