Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Juvenile Justice Reform

• U.S. Supreme Court ruling on life sentences for juveniles could overturn law
  The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether juveniles age 14 or younger can be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for homicide. A ruling that such sentences are categorically unconstitutional could upend laws in 36 states, including Wisconsin.
• Amnesty International calls on U.S. to stop jailing minors for life
  In a new report, Amnesty says sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole is incompatible with the basic principles of juvenile justice. Currently, more than 2,500 adults are in U.S. jails for crimes committed as a child and under current rules they will never be freed.
• Bullying behind bars: Pennsylvania's juvenile detention centers fail to protect LGBT youth
  National statistics show lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth in juvenile detention facilities fare worse than their heterosexual peers.
• Attorney General Holder Convenes First Hearing on Children’s Exposure to Violence
  Attorney General Eric Holder recently convened the first of four public hearings of the National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence, a part of the Defending Childhood Initiative, which is gathering expert and community testimony on children’s exposure to violence.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Participants Sought for Survey on Mentoring Services for High-Risk Youth

The National Mentoring Partnership, Global Youth Justice, and the National Partnership for Juvenile Services are conducting a survey to improve the design and delivery of mentoring services for youth at risk for delinquency, alcohol and drug abuse, truancy, and other problem behaviors.
• Dramatic rise in substance abuse treatment admission rates from 1999-2009
  A new SAMHSA report shows that while the overall rate of substance abuse treatment admissions among those aged 12 and older in the United States has remained nearly the same from 1999 to 2009, there has been a dramatic rise (430 %) in the rate of treatment admissions for the abuse of prescription pain relievers during this period.

In Ohio, Reclaiming Futures fellow Carol Martin was featured in the Logan Daily News Reporter for her work to combat drug abuse by providing educational materials to local educators and agencies.
After learning about local teen drug abuse, Carol ordered booklets from the Foundation for a Drug-Free World (which you can request here) and began bringing them to schools. The booklets detail each kind of drug, its nicknames, and short and long term effects on the human body and mind. It also includes information on what happens when teens combine drugs and other substances.
From the article:

Carol Martin, a member of Reclaiming Futures, a community coalition designed to mentor and assist youth in the community, says she believes the materials will be useful to both educators and parents. “I thought it would be great for the schools, and it’s a different way than just sitting and talking about drugs,” she said.

After using the booklets in North Carolina, that state saw a 40% decrease in the number of deaths or accidental poisonings, and Carol is hopeful that they will have a similar effect in Ohio. 
Great job, Carol! Keep up the good work and please keep us updated on your progress.

• Is moving a juvenile to adult court a mistake?
  As many as 9,000 times a year, U.S. judges move youth into criminal court, making it more likely that they will be held in adult jail. These transfers are meant for those suspected of dangerous offenses, but the Scripps Howard News Service found that only 2 out of 5 these kids stand accused of a violent crime against another person.
• District judges in Texas have new options for holding youth to be tried as adults
  In 29 states a loophole in a federal law allows juveniles facing prosecution as adults to be kept in county jails instead of juvenile detention facilities, where they face higher risks of suicide, physical assault and mental health problems — with limited access to therapy, education and specialized staff for juveniles. But in Texas, a new law passed by the Legislature allows district judges to order youth held at a juvenile facility.

• Using judo and grant funding to keep young people out of the system
  A new federal grant will help Ansonia, Connecticut, bolster programs and look at new ways to keep the city’s youth out of trouble. The funding addresses needs like mentoring, employment, family support, mental health, and diversion programs, like judo, to keep kids out of the juvenile justice system.

• OJJDP launches DMC virtual resource center
  This online forum provides Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) coordinators, state advisory group members, and other juvenile justice professionals with tools to exchange ideas, share trainings and communicate about new practice standards.
• Treatment Center alters schedule in response to adolescent sleep data
  Because sleep can affect a teen's mood and emotional self-control, Rosecrance Health Network, the largest adolescent treatment center in Illinois, restructured their program to reduce patients’ sleep deficit. Outcomes are encouraging.
• Update: Illinois juvenile prisons 
  Conditions in Illinois juvenile prisons are improving, according to a report by the John Howard Association on Illinois, but problems of overcrowding, lack of education and inadequate staffing linger.

• New guide helps identify youth at risk for alcohol-related problems
  The National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has released Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide. This free tool can help healthcare professionals identify youth at risk for alcohol-related problems, counsel or advise them, and connect them to external sources of treatment. It contains a risk assessment survey and links to motivational interviewing resources.

• On TV: "Young Kids, Hard Time"
  On Sunday, November 20 at 10 pm EST, MSNBC will premiere a one-hour documentary that throws back the veil on the reality of young kids serving long sentences in adult prisons. (Hat tip to the Campaign for Youth Justice.)
• Reform: D.C.'s juvenile justice system could be restructured
  Council member Jim Graham, charged with overseeing the city's Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, is considering a radical change to the agency via, "job development programs, we would have literacy, we would be dealing with this marijuana addiction, having mental health because a lot of these kids are abused. It would be different."
• Civil citations are key to Florida's juvenile justice reform
  On July 1, 2011, Florida law began requiring counties to establish a local civil citation process for youth that requires them to admit to the offense, perform community service and possibly participate in intervention services. The non-recidivism rate is 93% in one FL county that has been using this program for two years.
• New community care option for girls in Baltimore
  Girls going through the juvenile justice system now have an alternative to detention while waiting to be adjudicated - an alternative that’s been available to boys for years. Some can now attend a youth monitoring program that allows them to live at home and attend a reporting center.

• New report on dual involvement
  A study in Los Angeles shows dual involvement connects to major struggles in adulthood. Young people who exit both foster care and juvenile justice earn less as young adults and cost the public more than youth who only exit foster care, and are more than twice as likely to have been treated for a serious mental illness.
• Advice to a parent with a teen struggling with drug addiction
  Cherie Miller talks with Grant Voyles, a certified addiction counselor, about the warning signs and the importance of education.  Of course practice, patience and consistency don't hurt either.
• Life sentences for juveniles will be subject to U.S. Supreme Court review
  Less than a year and a half after ruling that such sentences are unconstitutional for youths convicted of a crime other than murder, the justices accepted two inmate appeals that would extend that conclusion to homicide cases, at least for children 14 and under.

I’ll never forget how my hands shook as I gripped my office phone that afternoon. My 16 year-old son called tell me he was a drug addict and that he needed help. Right now.
I must admit I did have suspicions he’d been involved in drugging. His behavior had changed. He was doing so poorly in school that he was on the verge of either failing or dropping out. He struggled with my newly blended family and the move to a new state. I thought everything would work its way out in his life, but the tenor of his voice told me this was something serious.
Even though I’m the parent or step-parent of seven boys, I was totally unprepared. I’d always wished for a book for the teen years to turn to when things go rough, much like my mom turned to her trusty Dr. Spock reference book. But, there isn’t anything like that to help parents navigate today’s minefields.
I flew out the door and was soon home, sitting in my living room, attempting to wrap my mind around the depth of his problems. The night before a drug dealer threatened him. This was serious. Turning to the Yellow Pages, I called several drug rehab facilities in my state, but found only one with an immediate opening. It was two hours away from home and my son sat quietly in the front seat. I felt I’d failed him. Who knows what he felt.
The intake counselor sat us down in a private office and began to do a drug inventory. As the list began to grow from marijuana use all the way down to cocaine and heroin, I shakily agreed to anything to help him get out of the death trap of drug addiction.
My situation wasn’t unusual.

The 2012 Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) will take place April 10-12 in Washington, D.C. 
The annual conference welcomes adolescent treatment researchers and evaluators, project directors, clinicians, policy makers, youth, families and other members of the recovery community in effort to exchange ideas and data in the field od adolesecnt treatment toward effective evidence-based practices.
JMATE 2012 will feature individual and panel presentations, technical workshops, poster sessions and interactive discussion hours.
Click here to register.
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Additionally, the 2012 JMATE call for abstracts has been extended for one week to November 8, 2011.
This extension is being granted in response to requests from the field and to help make up for a few technical issues that some persons reported experiencing during the abstract submission process. For complete details and instructions on how to submit your abstract, click here.

• Thanks for Participating in the CyberShoutout October 28
  The National Drug Facts Week (NDFW) is aimed at educating teens about drug abuse. All you have to do is tweet, blog or Facebook to spread the word about NDFW and help shatter the myths about drug abuse.
• Inaugural Issue of Journal of Juvenile Justice Available
  The Journal is an accessible, practical tool for a diverse researcher and practitioner audience. The semi-annual, peer-reviewed journal is sponsored by Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention addresses juvenile victimization, delinquency prevention, intervention, and treatment.
• Scientists Create Vaccine Against Heroin High
  Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a highly successful vaccine against a heroin high and have proven its therapeutic potential in animal models. (Hat tip to Robert Ackley.)

For its most recent episode, the Juvenile Justice Matters Blogtalk Radio Show has a new episode, now available online, highlighting a new national poll commissioned by the Campaign for Youth Justice.
The Pollster and Founding Partner at GBA Strategies poll reveals critical and timely information on youth in the justice system, showing overwhelming public support for treatment and rehabilitation of youth over incarceration and automatic prosecution in adult criminal court.
You can listen to new and archived episodes of the Juvenile Justice Matters show online here.
For more information about the national poll, visit www.blogtalkradio.com/jjmatters.