Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

•   How many youth are transferred from the juvenile justice system into the adult criminal justice system every year? No one knows. But the Bureau of Justice Statistics is initiating a study that should get us get closer to an answer to this an other questions about adult transfer practices. (Hat tip to Youth Today.)

• End the Byrne JAG formula grants? That's one of the Justice Policy Institute's (JPI) recommendations in a recent fact sheet on Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program spending. (JPI recommends replacing the formula grants with a competitive grant program focused on evidence-based programming.)

The JPI also recommended that juvenile justice funds be directed at "educational and community-based youth programming" and that substance abuse and mental health treatment services be funded through public health agencies, and not through the justice system: "By reaching people before they come in contact with the justice system, we can reduce future justice involvement and related costs, and reduce the chances that someone will have to deal with the collateral consequences of having a criminal record."

Today, we're joining teens, parents, teachers, and scientists across America to kick off National Drug Facts Week by offering up our own shoutout for educating teens (and adults) about drug abuse. Here at Reclaiming Futures, of course, we're especially concerned about adolescent substance abuse among teens in the juvenile justice system, and so we've collected a few items from the "Quick Facts" section of our new website -- chances are, at least some of them will surprise you. (Click on the reference numbers for the citations.)
 

• For four out of five kids aged 10-17 in the juvenile justice system, one or more of the following is true: they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs while committing their crimes; they test positive for drugs; they are arrested for committing an alcohol or drug offense; or they admit to having substance abuse problems.P1

Be sure to grab the "lessons learned" document from a forum focused on the need to integrate substance abuse treatment and general medical care. 
Held in April 2010 by the Treatment Research Institute (TRI) and funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). the forum brought together leaders and innovators in this area to talk about financing, coordination, barriers, and opportunities. 
According to the authors of the resulting issue brief, here's why integration matters:

It's been nearly 10 years since Reclaiming Futures first launched its website focused on its six-step model promoting juvenile justice reform and adolescent substance abuse treatment.
A lot has changed since then. Which is why we've revamped our website at http://www.reclaimingfutures.org/ to help you find what you're looking for more easily.
For example, you can:

 
Juvenile Justice News

• The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana put out the video below, "Trash to Triumph: New Orleans Juvenile Justice" showing the significant strides the city has made in reforming its juvenile justice system since Hurricane Katrina, when juveniles were housed with adult prisoners and herded onto a bridge without food or water for days on end.  It's 10 minutes long, but well worth watching.

Believe in juvenile justice reform? Want to lead a national initiative to disseminate a proven six-step model that allows communities to help teens break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime?
Now's your chance.
Back in June, Laura Burney Nissen announced that she would be stepping down as national director of Reclaiming Futures. The job opening has now been posted, and a national search is under way for a new national executive director.  >>Download the application.
P.S. Please share with friends and colleagues you think might be interested. 
 
Photo: capturingJenna.

[The following checklist, which applies to both adult and adolescent substance abuse treatment, is reposted with permission of the author from his website, Selected Papers of William L. White. See below for attribution; slight edits have been made for ease of viewing and clarity (view the original here). -Ed.]
One of the best predictors of treatment quality is the use of assertive approaches to continuing care [for clients]. The checklist below is designed to identify the extent to which a program exemplifies such an approach. 

It's quite common for youth who are put on probation in juvenile court to switch from their drug of choice to alcohol because it's much harder to catch on drug tests.
Why does this matter? Drunk driving, of course. But there's another reason: the younger kids start using alcohol, the more likely they are to develop alcohol dependence as adults. New data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and presented by the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) shows that youth who begin drinking at 14 or younger are nearly twice as likely to be dependent on alcohol as adults than youth who begin drinking between 15 and 17, almost four times as likely as youth who begin between 18 and 20, and over six times as likely as young adults who begin drinking past 21. 
There's no question many youth on probation have already been exposed to alcohol by the time they get to court. But this data is all the more reason that it's imperative to help them get treatment.

 
 Juvenile Justice News

• It was a week of scathing editorials on juveniles in the justice system:
  • A Huffington Post column quotes a Maryland study that shows that 68% of the time, youth sent to adult court are sent back to juvenile court -- but only after time spent either mixed in with adult prisoners or in 23-hour/day lockdown. (Hat tip to the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance.)

I've already posted about the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) call for public input on its eight strategies.
The agency plans to organize its work and funding priorities around these strategies, and wants input (and your votes on input from others) by October 22, 2010. 
I included links in my previous post to information online about the strategies, but here's something else you might find useful: the agency held an open house to talk about the initiatives last Friday. Video of that meeting has been archived, so you can review Q&A about SAMHSA's eight strategic initiatives, which made up a large portion of the event.