Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Summer Work Program Brings Change; Teens Congratulated for Personal Growth (JacksonSun.com)
  Jackson, Tennessee Mayor Jerry Gist’s Gang Prevention Task Force gave jobs to 43 "at-risk" youth between the ages of 15 and 18 at different locations across Madison County. The young people worked and received mentoring. The county has seen a much lower juvenile arrest rate during this same period.
• Project to Help Juveniles Make Successful Transition (CarmiTimes.com)
  The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission on Tuesday announced the start of a demonstration project to reduce the recidivism and improve the outcomes of juvenile offenders. The project will provide intensive reintegration services to help youth transition back into their communities.
• Prosecutors Share Details of Juvenile Justice System (EnidNews.com)
  Juvenile justice is one of the most difficult parts of the law, but a necessary one designed to do what is in the best interests of the children involved.
• Kids in Court Have a Friend in Tyler the Poodle (PNJ.com)
  Tyler [the poodle] is one of thousands of certified pet-therapy dogs nationwide, but rather than visiting people in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice centers, schools or libraries, he helps kids in the juvenile court system.
• Ohio Delegation Visits NJ To Study Juvenile Detention Reform Efforts (NJToday.net)
  A delegation from the state of Ohio including judges, court administrators, representative from the Ohio Department of Youth Services, and other stakeholders, are in New Jersey to attend a two-day working session designed to help Ohio replicate New Jersey’s success in juvenile detention reform.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Caseload Limits a Win for Public Defenders, Clients — and Justice (The Seattle Times)
  The order requires public defenders to certify that they meet certain standards, including caseload limits and experience qualifications. The new standards limit caseloads to 400 misdemeanors or 150 felonies or 250 juvenile cases per lawyer per year.
• Juvenile Hall Camp Alternatives Catch On (SF Gate)
  Camps and community-based programs that rely on group formats and help youths develop new skills and address personal challenges fare much better when it comes to reducing recidivism, studies show.
• DJJ Recognized as the Second Juvenile Justice System to Obtain Golden Eagle Award (SurfKY.com)
  The American Correctional Association (ACA) has presented its highest honor for commitment to excellence, the Golden Eagle Award, to the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (KYDJJ) for its work in achieving ACA accreditation in all of its facilities, the training academy, central office and community and mental health division.
• Federal Money to Help Illinois Change Troubling Youth Prison Statistic(WBEZ 91.5)
  Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's Juvenile Justice Commission says 50 to 60 percent of the kids released from youth prisons end up going back within three years. It’s a troubling statistic, but the state is now hoping to use federal money to change it.
• TJJD Doing Blanket Review of Youths in Facilities (The Texas Tribune)
  The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is in the process of reviewing the histories of all youths in its detention centers to better assess security risks in the facilities.
• Children's Defense Fund conference sparks Cleveland teens to action: Margaret Bernstein (Cleveland.com)
  At its conference this week, speakers ranging from poet Maya Angelou to Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke have said the nation needs to do a better job of investing in young lives, not prisons.

Resiliency is a measure of a person’s ability to flexibly adapt their behaviors to fit the surroundings in which they find themselves. Low resiliency during childhood has been linked to later alcohol/drug problems during the teenage years. A new study has examined brain function and connectivity to assess linkages between resiliency and working memory, finding that higher resiliency may be protective against later alcohol/drug use.
Results will be published in the August 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
“Research in the 1980’s found that lower resiliency in children between three to four years old was related to subsequent adolescent drug usage,” said Barbara J. Weiland, a researcher at The University of Michigan and corresponding author for the study. “We subsequently found that low resiliency measured in preschoolers was associated with onset of alcohol use by age 14 and of drunkenness by age 17.”

This fall, SAMHSA plans to launch "Talk. They Hear You."—its third National Underage Drinking Campaign. With the help of a panel of experts to guide research, objectives, and strategies, SAMHSA has focused the campaign on engaging parents of youth ages 9 to 15 in prevention behaviors and motivating them to talk to their kids before there is a problem. The campaign aims to provide parents with practical advice, information, and tools to support their role as influencers on their child's decision not to drink.
Drinking alcohol under the age of 21 is illegal in the U.S., yet according to SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), in 2010, approximately 10 million youth ages 12 to 20 reported drinking alcohol in the past month. Underage drinking increases the risk of academic failure, illicit drug use, and tobacco use. And as a leading contributor to death from injuries for people under age 21, underage drinking continues to be a public health concern with serious consequences for youth, their families, and their communities.
In 2006, Congress passed the Sober Truth on Preventing (STOP) Underage Drinking Act that requires the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish and enhance the efforts of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking. It is through the STOP Underage Drinking Act that SAMHSA's Underage Drinking Prevention National Media Campaign is mandated.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Juvenile Justice: They're Just Kids (Hartford Courant)
  Teenagers under age 18 who are charged with misdemeanors can no longer be tried as adults in Connecticut. This overdue new law reflects a more nuanced societal understanding of adolescent development and psychology.
• Gov. Deal Wants Review of Juvenile Justice System (The Augusta Chronicle)
  Gov. Nathan Deal urged judges, prosecutors, sheriffs and legislators serving on a criminal-justice reform commission Monday to consider every part of the juvenile justice system for overhaul.
• CT Law Treating 17-Year-Olds as Children in Court Goes Into Effect (EastHampton-PortlandPatch)
  From now on, 17-year-olds arrested for non-felony crimes will be able to take advantage of more state rehabilitation programs rather than jail.
• Opinion: N.J. Sets a Progressive Example for Juvenile Justice Reform (NJ.com)
  "As a juvenile justice advocate and student of legal history, it appears to me that the court’s holding seems obvious, but juvenile law reform has not gone far enough. The same rationale differentiating youth from adults when considering the harshest sentences also underpins other compelling legal questions," says Matthew M. House.
• New Law Channeling Older Teens Into Juvenile Court (Hartford Courant)
  New "raise the age'' legislation introduced 17-year-olds into the juvenile court system for the first time on July 1, and by Tuesday, there were 25 of the older kids sitting in detention centers across the state.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a government sponsored study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), found that teens were more like to try new substances for the first time during June and July. The study surveyed teens between the ages of 12 and 17 who reported trying a new substance within the previous year.
The average daily rates for first-time alcohol use range from 5,000-8,000 and 3,000- 4,000 for first-time cigarette and marijuana use. On an average day in June and July, first time alcohol users alone can reach up to approximately 11,000. In addition, during those two summer months, an average of 4,500 young adults sample cigarettes for the first time and 5,000 teens begin using marijuana.
While there are several possible reasons as to why this jump in first-time substance users occurs in the summer, the most likely are that adolescents have a sudden increase in their free time as well as less adult supervision and responsibilities that are present during the school year.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Bradley County: Juvenile Court, Schools Join to Help Families (TimesFreePress.com)
  From campus courts to an elementary-level class at the county's Juvenile Justice Center, the goal is to keep kids from growing up and entering the adult justice system, officials said Tuesday.
• Juveniles In Court: New Chief Judge Relies On 'Holistic' Nursing Approach (Hartford Courant)
  Appointed last month as Connecticut's chief administrative judge of juvenile matters, Wolven, whose five-year term will begin in September, said she sees the courts taking the same [holistic] approach when it comes to juvenile offenders.
• Making an Impression in the Courtroom (JuvenileJusticeBlog.web.unc.edu)
  The senior administrative support specialist in the Pima County Public Defender’s Office maintains a clothes closet for defendants. Inside are more than 60 pairs of men’s and women’s shoes and dozens of slacks, blouses, dress shirts, suit coats and ties. [Vicki Broom] goes to the jail every week to measure defendants heading for trial. If she’s lucky, she’ll be able to find enough outfits to mix and match for the entire trial.

Good news: fewer teens are using drugs now than in the mid-1990s. In the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" survey, 17% of teens reported using drugs in the 30 days before the survey, as compared to 20.6% in 1996. Alcohol, cigarette and smokeless tobacco use are also down, while marijuana is on the rise.

(Check out this interactive infographic based on the report's findings from GOOD Magazine.)
More specifically, the survey found:

New federal dollars will pay for a $1.29 million, multi-year evaluation in six juvenile drug courts implementing Reclaiming Futures, a national program that improves drug and alcohol treatment for teens in trouble with the law. This evaluation, the first of its kind, will examine the impact, processes and cost-effectiveness of Juvenile Drug Courts implementing the Reclaiming Futures model. Funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention through an interagency agreement with the Library of Congress, this evaluation will be conducted by the University of Arizona's Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW).
"We know from a 2006 evaluation by the Urban Institute that Reclaiming Futures improves the lives of young people by changing the juvenile justice system for the better," says Susan Richardson, national executive director of Reclaiming Futures. "This new research will look at specific outcomes, such as recidivism, relapse rates, and costs." 

Families can and do play an important role in preventing, treating and recovering from substance abuse. As part of the National Recovery Month's Road to Recovery video series, Ivette Torres (director for Consumer Affairs at the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment) speaks with doctors, advocates and treatment providers to find out just how families can support their struggling loved ones.

Panelists answer the following questions: