Juvenile Justice Reform

Joaquin DiazDeLeon is a college student, youth justice advocate and a Mayoral Appointee to the San Francisco Reentry Council. He's also spent time in the juvenile justice system.
Joaquin was recently featured on KQED's "Perspectives" program, where he discussed his time in juvenile detention and California Governor Brown's realignment proposal:

The whole point of juvenile incarceration should be about reform, preparing young people to re-enter society. Too often though, I felt like nothing more than a paycheck for guards whose sole job it was to lock and unlock doors...At 16, I was sent to two different state facilities that were more than 100 miles from my hometown. Gangs dominated the culture, and egos raged out of control. I was in a fight on my very first day.
Separated by a two-hour drive from my mom, my town and everything I knew, I spent a long time believing that I was labeled for life. I couldn't imagine a day when I would be anything other than my crimes, when people could see me as a human again.
I think people are missing the point when they debate whether or not counties should re-take control of juvenile justice, because I'm shocked communities ever gave teenagers away to the state in the first place. Rehabilitation happens when teenagers are forced to connect to their communities and confront their mistakes. Teen offenders need to understand that they're defecating where they eat. They need community support, instead of being locked up far away.

Juvenile Justice Reform
Lead juvenile justice expert says CA state facilities should stay open
Turnstyle News
For more than thirty years, it’s been Barry Krisberg’s priority to fight for reforms in California’s state juvenile correctional facilities, known as the California Youth Authority (CYA) or Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). And now a change is coming at the DJJ.

Many teens sent to adult court: Butler County tied for 7th in number of youth charged with murder
Middletown Journal
Some legal experts question if the courts should try as many juveniles as adults, but others said they deserve the same punishment if they kill someone. Butler County has the sixth highest number of teenagers bound over to adult court between 2007-2010 in Ohio, according to state records examined by The Journal. The county is tied for seventh in the number of youths charged with murder. Cuyahoga County charged 66 teens with murder and Hamilton County was second with 31 during the same time period.
New York City to take custody of local juveniles from updstate facilities
WNYC
New York City will soon take responsibility for its youthful offenders instead of shipping them to facilities upstate, an option that has been viewed as ineffective and costly. The change is something child advocates and city officials have been pushing for for years.

Marin YMCA youth court to hold teen camp on juvenile justice system
Marin Independent Journal  The Marin YMCA Youth Court will hold a four-day camp for teens on the juvenile justice system and restorative justice. Registration is still open.

Fear and anger collide in juvenile court
The Daily Times
A look inside the Wicomico County juvenile court and efforts to keep kids from reoffending.
Adolescent Substance Abust Treatment

Four arrested for buying beer for teenagers
San Diego County News Center
Perhaps youthful memories of high school parties motivates some strangers to agree to buy teenagers alcohol when they’re asked. But being a “cool” grown-up resulted in the arrest of four people as part of a state-wide crackdown on underage drinking.

Late Tuesday night, the New York Senate, Assembly and Governor agreed on the 2012-13 budget, which includes an innovative new juvenile justice program.
The “Close to Home” initiative, which would allow New York City to place low and mid-level juvenile delinquents in treatment programs in or near New York City, rather than in facilities hundreds of miles away in upstate New York, was included in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s original budget proposal. The Senate and Assembly, however, first had to approve the measure and pass budgets that included it.
Beginning in September of 2012, youth otherwise placed in non-secure facilities will now be placed in New York City-administered programs and facilities. Youth from limited-secure facilities will be placed in City programs beginning in April of 2013.
These categories of youth in New York are usually tried for misdemeanors or non-violent felonies. When they are sent to facilities far upstate, they are often placed a great distance from their families and communities. This distance from support networks correlates with dismal outcomes—youth recidivism among offenders released from state facilities is over 80 percent after three years. Furthermore, the cost exceeds $250,000 per year, giving taxpayers little return on a high investment.

The Reclaiming Futures model is used in 29 communities (in 17 states) across the country. As National Executive Director Susan Richardson often says, "if you've seen one court, you've seen one court," meaning that while every Reclaiming Futures court implements the same six step model, there are often differences in the program based on what works in each community. In Snohomish County, Washington, troubled teens work with local artists to learn glass blowing and creative writing. In Oklahoma's Cherokee Nation, youth learn about their heritage and partake in cultural events. And in Bristol County, Massachusetts, the focus is on building teens' self-esteem and self-worth. One model with many different approaches -- and all with great results. 
The South Coast Today recently wrote about the success of Reclaiming Futures in Bristol County. From the article:

Baseball fans know Joe Torre as a former MLB catcher and MLB manager. But they may know not that he was exposed to violence as a child, an experience that played a major role in shaping his life. He recently wrote an op-ed in the Miami Herald, explaining why preventing children's exposure to violence is so important to him.
He writes:

I was the youngest of five kids who grew up in an abusive home. My father, a New York City police officer, physically abused my mother and emotionally abused us all. My older siblings protected me from the violence, but they couldn’t shield me from the fear. Baseball became my shelter — the place to which I escaped to feel safe.
I didn’t know until decades later how much the way I felt about myself had been shaped by that fear. More than just fear, though, I felt shame, as well. As a kid, I was embarrassed by the belief that my house was the only one where things like this were happening. I worried that I had done something to cause the problem, and felt ashamed that I couldn’t stop it. As an adult, it took counseling for me to see myself as the innocent child I really had been, and to understand how deeply the violence I had witnessed affected me.

Because of these traumatic experiences, Joe and his wife founded the Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation, which provides education and safe rooms in middle schools for kids caught in an abusive environment. Joe also serves as co-chair of Attorney General Eric Holder's National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence, which is part of the DOJ's Defending Childhood Initiative.

Know any professionals of color who want to lead efforts to help youth in trouble with the law?
Then you should encourage them to apply to the Youth Justice Leadership Institute. The Institute, offered by the National Juvenile Justice Network, is a robust, year-long, distance-learning program that includes leadership development, training in juvenile justice system policies and practices, theories of change, and advocacy skills development. Now in its second year, its goal is to expand the base of advocates and organizers in the field who reflect the communities who are most affected by the way the juvenile justice system operates.

Past fellows have described the Institute variously as a great opportunity, a place that helped them see the national context for their work, connected them to colleagues and peers across the country and which helped them bring back useful information to their communities. But see for yourself what they have to say -- check out the video above.

Shay Bilchik (founder and Director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute) is at Portland State University this afternoon to discuss the juvenile justice system. I'll be liveblogging his talk here, so tune in!
"If We Knew Then, What We Know Now: Implications for Juvenile Justice Policy in America"
4:45pm Dr. David Springer (upcoming Dean of PSU's School of Social Work): I've had the pleasure of serving with Shay on a juvenile justice panel in Austin about a year ago, and we're all in for a real treat.
4:50pm Bilchik: We're launching work with Multnomah and Marion counties' juvenile justice systems...
Oregon has demonstrated a vision that shows the possibility of serving children and families in a great way. The multi-system juvenile justice system here is the best in the country. 
4:55pm Bilchik: We're primed to build a better and smarter juvenile justice system. It's no longer just the juvenile justice field, youth development field, education fields.. we're now working across systems. As Dr. Laura Nissen says, "these are boundary founders" who are working across multiple fields. To put it simply, we want to provide love, opportunity and hope to the children who come in contact with the juvenile justice system.
5:05pm Bilchik: We need to make sure that none of our children fall through the cracks and too often we don't do that. Too often these kids are without power (living in impoverished communities) and kids of color.
So what would we have done differently if we knew then what we know now?

For those in the Portland, Oregon area: We're joining PSU's School of Social Work in hosting Shay Bilchik for a lecture and discussion on the juvenile justice system. He'll address ways to improve systemic coordination and outcomes for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. A local panel of experts will react to Shay's remarks and Dr. David Springer (incoming Dean of the School of Social Work) will moderate.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
4:30 - 6:00 pm (doors open at 4)
Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 327/328
Portland State University
Shay is the founder and Director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute.  Prior to joining the Institute in 2007, he was the President and CEO of the Child Welfare League of America. Previously, he headed up the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he advocated for and supported a balanced and multi-systems approach to attacking juvenile crime and addressing child victimization. Before coming to the nation's capital, Shay was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami, Florida from 1977-1993, where he served as a trial lawyer, juvenile division chief and Chief Assistant State Attorney. Shay earned his B.S. and J.D. degrees from the University of Florida.
RSVP here and let me know if you're going. I hope to see you there!

Recently, the U.S. Department of Education released a study documenting disproportionality in rates of suspensions and expulsions in public schools across the United States.
The report, which covered 72,000 schools across the United States, states that African-Americans only make up 18 percent of youth at the studied schools, but 35 percent of students suspended once and 39 percent of those expelled.
These findings mirror one aspect of a Texas study released last year, which found that African-American students in Texas were 31 percent more likely to be disciplined in school, at least once, than otherwise identical Caucasian or Hispanic students.
Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board looked at these findings and deduced that this highlights the need for increased school choice. Just as importantly, it highlights another education reform priority – the overcriminalization of students of all races.
As zero tolerance policies have increased in both scope and consequences (now covering fish oil dietary supplements, asthma inhalers, oregano, and butter knives), more and more minor misbehavior spurs referrals to the justice system or triggers suspensions, when it previously would have been handled through parental involvement or traditional disciplinary methods, such as a visit to the principal’s office, after-school detention, or requiring the student to perform school or community service.

Juvenile Justice Reform
OPINION: State must be smart on youth crime
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Juvenile crime has been dropping for many years in a row. That's good news because it means fewer victims and safer neighborhoods. One interesting factor in the falling crime rate has been that we lock up fewer juveniles. That's right — the crime rate is dropping at the same time we are putting fewer youngsters behind bars. And that makes sense once you think about it.
PODCAST: Stanford Law professor on California’s criminal justice realignment  Stanford Law Professor Joan Petersilia discusses the realignment of California’s criminal justice system, realignment’s impact on county jails, the need for comprehensive realignment research and analysis, and the importance of researcher-practitioner partnerships.
Preckwinkle: “Blow up” juvenile jail and put kids in smaller regional centers
Cook County Reporter
When Cook County Bord President Toni Preckwinkle was asked if she agreed with the report’s recommendation that the juvenile detention center be closed, Preckwinkle said: “Of course. I said that from the beginning. I think I said we should blow it up.”
Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment
National Inhalant Prevention Coalition: Stop encouraging kids to huff helium
Join Together
Huffing helium is not safe, and adults must stop encouraging children to do it, according to the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition
NIPC, a group that promotes awareness and recognition of inhalant use.