Juvenile Justice Reform

As many in the juvenile justice community sadly know, a focus on diagnosing and treating mental health and substance abuse problems in detained juveniles developed relatively late nationally. This is particularly true in the State of Idaho, which did not have systematic, routine mental health and substance abuse screening occurring in its 12 juvenile detention centers (JDCs) until 2008. Since the inception of the Clinical Services Program (CSP), a collaborative effort funded by the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Idaho has made dramatic strides in screening for mental health and substance abuse problems in juveniles entering its JDCs, and recommending and (and sometimes coordinating) treatment for these juveniles upon their return to their communities.
Starting in 2008, my colleagues and I at Boise State University’s Center for Health Policy have performed annual, multimodal assessments of the CSP. One of the main components of our evaluation has involved documenting the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse problems. What we’ve found is that juveniles entering Idaho’s JDCs should be considered to have at least one of these types of problems unless demonstrated otherwise; in other words, having a mental health or substance abuse problem, or both types of problems, is the rule rather than the exception to it.

We realize that many of our readers spent at least part of August traveling and spending time away from the computer. So, we've put together a little recap of our most popular juvenile justice blog posts of August 2012.
10. A Look Back on 11 Years of Juvenile Justice Reform
Earlier this summer, the National Conference of State Legislatures published a report detailing the progress made in the juvenile justice arena at the state and national levels.
9. Funding Opportunity: Improve Outcomes for Boys of Color
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced a new call for proposals for 10 grants of up to $500,000 each. The Forward Promise initiative is looking for innovative, community-based projects working to strengthen health, education and employment outcomes for middle school and high school-aged boys and young men of color.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• [OPINION] With Volunteers' Help, Teens at Halfway House will Continue to Soar (Statesman.com)
  "The Texas Juvenile Justice Department (formerly the Texas Youth Commission) has been embroiled in difficult discussions with legislators and community leaders about policy, politics and performance for as long as most of us can remember. But what people like you and I often forget, or never think about, is that there are kids at stake."
• Clark County Juvenile Justice System Processing Fewer Teens (OregonLive.com)
  The number of teenagers entering Clark County's juvenile justice system has dropped by half in the last five years, leading those involved in the system to wonder why. In 2007, schools, police and other agencies referred to the county justice system a total of 3,575 juveniles who had committed misdemeanor and felony offenses. So far this year, the number is 1,584.
• A Roadmap to the Future of Juvenile Justice (NewAmericaMedia.org)
  Juvenile justice is transforming throughout America. Though there is a long road ahead to reform these systems into effective, rehabilitative programs that no longer make children worse, there is great promise in jurisdictions across the country, that are changing how they work with youth.
• Juveniles Entitled to Hearing Before Being Moved to State Prison, N.J. Court Panel Rules (NJ.com)
  Unruly juveniles housed at any of New Jersey's facilities for young offenders are entitled to a hearing before they're transferred to a state prison, a state appeals court panel ruled today. Teens under the jurisdiction of the state Juvenile Justice Commission need more than same-day notice of the transfer, the court said.
• Register Wants to Hear your Juvenile Justice Experiences (DesMoinesRegister.com)
  According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there were arrests of nearly 1.3 million people under age 18 in the United States in 2010. Despite public perception of teens being especially dangerous, less than 1 percent of the arrests were for murder, manslaughter or forcible rape.
• Summer Program Teaches Teens Basics of Farm Work (Missoulian.com)
  The Youth Harvest project is run in partnership with Missoula’s Youth Drug Court, Human Resource Council and Willard School. Some of the Youth Harvest members are referred through court, others through their teachers or counselors. All must apply and interview for the job.

In an effort to make the juvenile justice system make more sense to the youth that it serves, the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) in Brooklyn created a comic book called, “I Got Arrested! Now What?” CUP is a non-profit that works with designers and artists to help the city’s residents understand how government functions.
The Gotham Gazette reports,

To create the comic that tells the story of how the criminal justice system works, in 2010 CUP teamed with a graphic novelist, the Department of Probation and youth leaders from the Center for Court Innovation. Their goal was to offer clear, engaging instructions for teens that have recently been arrested.
[...]
For the Brooklyn-based designer of “I Got Arrested," Danica Novgorodoff, dealing with the unfamiliar terminology of the criminal justice system was one of the challenges. But she said each page has a vocabulary box explaining terminology in a simple way for teenagers.
“I think that graphic novels are a great way to explore material that can otherwise be overly dense or dry," she said.

I am currently in the process of preparing this year’s syllabus for the companion course that I teach with the Juvenile Justice Clinic entitled, “The Criminal Lawyering Process.” It is designed to introduce clinic students to North Carolina juvenile court practice and procedure as well as to the issues commonly confronted by juvenile defenders.
One of the most difficult concepts for students (and many lawyers) to grasp is that of the role of the juvenile defender, as we are bound to represent what the client herself articulates as her goals and preferences, rather than being guided by our own view of what is in the youth’s “best interests.” A related concept that students often find challenging is the limited role of the child’s parents during the course of representation; it is the client and not her parents who ultimately makes the critical decisions in the case, including whether to admit or have an adjudicatory hearing and whether or not to testify. Parents of juveniles sometimes balk at this ethical rule, as they are accustomed to serving as the ultimate decision-maker for their son or daughter in nearly every other setting.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Bike Donation Makes Difference at Youth Facilities (UTICAOD.com)
  Residents of four upstate juvenile justice facilities operated by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) now have refurbished bicycles to ride. They were donated by Community Bikes, a Hamilton-based organization which refurbishes and “upcycles” unused bicycles to those who need them.
• NC to Examine Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice System (HispanicBusiness.com)
  North Carolina has formed an interim commission to begin studying racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The move follows The Fayetteville Observer's report in June that a task force for defense lawyers found that blacks and Hispanics are "systematically searched at much higher rates than whites."
• Juvenile Offender Program Working (TBO.com)
  A program to keep first-time juvenile offenders out of Hillsborough County, Florida's criminal justice system recorded a 91 percent success rate after one year, county commissioners learned Thursday.

A report released this month takes an in-depth look at how girls are represented in North Carolina's juvenile justice system, how the numbers have shifted over the years and why females are the fastest growing segment of the juvenile justice system despite the overall decrease in juvenile crime. Representing Girls In the Juvenile Justice System, released by the North Carolina Office of the Juvenile Defender, looks at not only the characteristics and risk factors of girls in the juvenile justice system, but also offers several best practices to best serve the unique issues this population faces.
Since the early 1990s, due to policy changes, the number of girls in the juvenile justice system has been on the rise. Basically, the increased amount of girls in the juvenile justice system can be credited to the “relabeling of girls’ family conflicts as violent offenses, shifting police practices concerning domestic violence, processing of misdemeanor cases in a gender-biased manner and a misunderstanding of girls’ developmental issues,” according to the report.

What happens before a murder? In looking for ways to reduce the number of death penalty cases, David R. Dow realized that a surprising number of death row inmates had similar biographies. In discussing the need for comprehensive intervention for economically disadvantaged and otherwise troubled kids, Dow explains:

Beyond Scared Straight premieres its 3rd season tonight. While the show aims to scare troubled teens away from bad behavior, research has shown it's ineffective and damaging to kids. In fact, Scared Straight programs actually INCREASE the likelihood that teens will reoffend.

We've written quite a bit on (Beyond)Scared Straight in the past:

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Teens Get a Second Chance (SouthBendTribune.com)
  It is not mission impossible for the Juvenile Justice Center teens enrolled in the first year "Mission Possible" program at the South Bend Kroc Center. According to the Childrens and Youth Ministries Manager Jacqueline Davis, the mission is to try to give struggling teens a new direction.
• Federal Grant to Help Study Minorities in Juvenile Justice (WyandotteDailyNews.com)
  U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom reported that a $400,000 federal grant to the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority will help evaluate disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system.
• ROCA Selected for New Social Investment Program (Chelsea Record)
  Massachusetts will be the first state to implement the ‘pay for success’ model of social financing through a Juvenile Justice contract and ROCA of Chelsea will help lead the effort with two Social Innovation Financing (SIF) contracted partners.
• New Texas Juvenile Justice Priorities Could be in Jeopardy (PublicNewsService.org)
  Recent improvements to the long-troubled juvenile justice system in Texas are already in jeopardy, if a just-released survey of officials in 73 county youth probation departments is any indication.
• Feds: Mississippi County Runs 'School-to-Prison Pipeline' (CNN.com)
  Officials in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, have operated "a school-to-prison pipeline" that violates the constitutional rights of juveniles by incarcerating them for alleged school disciplinary infractions, some as minor as defiance, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
• Memphis Begins Reforms of Beleaguered Juvenile Court (TheCommercialAppeal.com)
  Shelby County, Tennessee court officials say they will move the juvenile defense system from Juvenile Court oversight and place it under the office in charge of defending adults.
• Juvenile Justice Sets up Tip Line (The Augusta Chronical)
  The Atlanta, Georgia De­part­ment of Juvenile Jus­tice has a new investigative tool: a Web site where people can report suspicious activities at the state’s youth detention centers and court-services offices.