Juvenile Justice Reform

• 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.

Via the Justice Policy Institute comes a new report titled Education Under Arrest: The Case Against Police in Schools. The report cites recent cases to conclude that increases in the presence of law enforcement agents in schools, especially in the form of school resource officers (SROs), coincides with increases in referrals to the juvenile justice system, especially for minor offenses like disorderly conduct.
The report concludes the trend causing lasting harm, as arrests and referrals to the juvenile justice system disrupt the educational process and can lead to suspensions, expulsions or other alienation from school.
From the Justice Policy's companion blog post: "All of these negative effects set youth on a track to drop out of school and put them at greater risk of becoming involved in the justice system later on, all at tremendous costs for taxpayers aswell the youth themselves and their communities."
You can dowload the full report (PDF) here.

At their Annual Meeting in October, the Athens-Hocking-Vinton 317 Board recognized two Hocking County, Ohio community members for their work in substance abuse and mental health advocacy.
Carol Martin, Reclaiming Futures Hocking County (RFHC) Community Fellow, received the Hocking County Substance Abuse Prevention Award. She was nominated by Dr. Joe Gay, Executive Director of Health Recovery Services, Inc., a partner member of Reclaiming Futures Hocking County.
"I am humbled and honored to receive the award from the 317 board," Martin said, "but I feel the entire Reclaiming Futures team in Hocking County deserves to be recognized. We all understand the importance of advocating for the youth - the future of our community. They're all our children, and they deserve and need the support of our community."
The event was held at the Vinton County Middle School Cafetorium in McArthur, Ohio. From the event program: "Ms. Martin has tirelessly served in the Community Fellowship position in the Hocking County Juvenile Court Reclaiming Futures grant. She champions the need for quality substance abuse service coordination to benefit children and families involved in Hocking County Juvenile Court."
Carol has served in her Community Fellow role for three and a half years and during her tenure has established the Hocking County Youth Fund, at the Hocking County Chamber of Commerce, in order to help support activities for court-involved youth and their families.  She has also been responsible for developing a mentoring program for Hocking County Juvenile Court and is working closely with Bonnie Loudner from Good Guides Mentoring Program, a part of Good Will Industries, to match youth to adults and recruit and train adults in the community to become mentors.
As an "RFHC Cheerleader," Carol and her husband Roy have personally sponsored monthly activities and awards for Juvenile Treatment Court and Treatment Court graduations.

Photo caption: Roy (left) and Carol (right) Martin at the recent Athens-Hocking-Vinton 317 Board Annual Meeting. Carol Martin received the Hocking County Substance Abuse Prevention Award at recent Athens-Hocking-Vinton 317 Board Annual Meeting. 

• 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.

Attorney general Eric Holder has published a new blog post about youth violence prevention, highlighting the efforts of cities participating in the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention.
Here's an excerpt:

Throughout my career, I have seen the devastating effects of youth violence far too often. As a prosecutor and a judge; as a U.S. Attorney, as Deputy Attorney General – and, above all, as the father of three teenage children – I’ve been determined to make the progress that our nation’s young people deserve.
In September of 2009, this country was shocked by a video depicting the brutal beating and murder of a 16-year-old Chicago honor student. That savage attack was seared into our collective memory, and it left an indelible mark on the community where it took place. But, tragically, it is just one horrifying example of the violence that many young people face every day, in cities and towns across this country.
In response to this crisis, last year, President Obama directed the Departments of Justice and Education to partner with other federal agencies – and with representatives from six cities – to launch the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, a network of committed stakeholders dedicated to stopping the brutality and bloodshed that devastates too many of the youngest members of our society. The six cities participating in the Forum — Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, Calif. and San Jose, Calif. — have made great strides toward developing and implementing comprehensive crime prevention strategies tailored to eradicating the violence that has ravaged their communities and stolen so many promising futures.

The Crimes Against Children Research Center has released its Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire.
A supplemental tool to the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), the questionnaire attempts to document the full range of victimization that youth experience, including conventional crime, maltreatment, peer and sibling victimization, sexual victimization, witnessing, and other exposure to violence. Moreover, it aims to help practitioners determine youth’s needs, assess whether victimization programs are effective, raise awareness on youth victimization, and improve victimization research.
NatSCEV is the largest, most comprehensive survey on youth victimization conducted in the United States.
Multiple versions of the JVQ-R2 questionnaire is free and available online here.
Click here to view and download other publications from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence series.

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.

• Join the CyberShoutout October 28: Making Smart Choices Kicking off National Drug Facts Week, the CyberShoutout is a day-long special event featuring discussions in social media by bloggers, organization leaders, and other stakeholders on the topic of youth drug abuse. The Shout is hosted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
• National Drug Facts Week is October 31-November 6
  Hosted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Drug Facts Week is a health observance week for teens that aims to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse. Through community-based events and activities on the Web, on TV, and through contests, NIDA is working to encourage teens to get factual answers from scientific experts about drugs and drug abuse.
• Abstracts Due November 1 for JMATE
  The Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness offers a unique opportunity for for practice, research and treatment communities to exchange ideas and data, thereby moving the field of adolescent treatment toward effective, evidence-based and promising practices. The conference is Tuesday, April 10 through Thursday, April 12, 2012 in Washington, DC.