Juvenile Justice Reform

In the interviews we’ve conducted for our evaluation of six Reclaiming Futures sites in North Carolina, we often hear the initiative characterized as “exciting” and “promising,” but also as complex, challenging and messy. Those of you who are living Reclaiming Futures on a day-to-day basis recognize that changing systems is a process full of ups and downs, wins and setbacks. It’s easy to lose track of the larger progress that your initiative is making in improving the lives of youth who come through the justice system.
 
Collectively, the two of us have close to 25 years of experience evaluating programs and initiatives. Through this experience, we’ve learned that one of the most important benefits that evaluation can bring is a clearer, broader picture of what’s happening on the ground. Toward that end, we have developed a model of the “stages of development” that occur for systems-change initiatives like Reclaiming Futures. 
 
The premise of the model is that a coalition carrying out systems-change work passes through five distinct stages at predictable points in its life course. We’ve named these stages:

1. initiation
2. team development
3. initial impact
4. extending the impact
5. sustaining the process of innovation and reform

 
The nature of a coalition’s work shifts considerably from one stage to the next. Moreover, each stage has a unique set of “developmental tasks” that must be mastered if the initiative is to succeed in moving on to later stages.

The National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC), a project of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, recently published a list of frequently asked questions and answers on juvenile justice and reentry.

As many as 100,000 youth under the age of 18 are released from juvenile correctional facilities every year. These young people often return to their communities with complex needs, such as physical and behavioral health issues and barriers to education and employment. The FAQ provides information on:

• the organization of the juvenile justice system and its impact on reentry;
• the characteristics of youth committed to out-of-home placement;
• the challenges many youth face as they return from placement;
• and the policies and practices that are key to successful reentry.

Eliminating the revolving door of the criminal and juvenile justice systems is one of the Nation’s biggest challenges in reducing the devastating consequences of drug use. It deprives our youngest generations of their chance to lead healthy, safe and productive lives, and often fosters intergenerational violence. That’s why the Obama Administration is taking steps to prevent young people from becoming involved in drug use and crime, and providing intervention, treatment, alternatives to incarceration, and reentry support for those that do.
Last year, the Administration released its inaugural strategy for coordinating national drug control activities and reducing the effects of drug use and its consequences and stressed the need for effective substance abuse treatment for adolescents. The week before last, the 2011 National Drug Control Strategy built upon that foundation and expanded support for these efforts. Evidence-based, early interventions are critical tools to keep young people from cycling in and out of the juvenile justice system, or worse, entering and cycling through the adult system. Youth should not only be screened and treated for substance use problems, but also for unmet emotional, behavioral, or academic needs.

• Reclaiming Futures-Rowan County Makes a Difference for Teens
  In 2008, law enforcement agencies in the United States arrested more than 2 million people under the age of 18, according to the FBI. The best way to address youth crime, experts say, is to get to the heart of the problem — be it substance abuse, family issues or mental health problems. In the Salisbury Times, Shavonne Potts tells the story of Reclaiming Futures showing teens they care in Rowan County, North Carolina.
• Texas’ Progress on Juvenile Justice
  A New York Times editorial celebrates a state juvenile justice system that is making impressive strides, when it was in chaos just a few years ago. How? Troubled children receive guidance and rehabilitation services in or near their communities, where they have support from families, churches and other local organizations. (Hat tip to Youth Transition Funders Group.)

I met Emmitt Hayes about 10 years ago, when I first learned about Reclaiming Futures. He had led Travis County, TX through a project funded inthe mid-1990s by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) -- a project that laid the groundwork for Reclaiming Futures. (Interestingly, Travis County, TX is one of our newest sites.)
In the decade since, he's continued to serve Reclaiming Futures as a valued advisor, sharing --  with humor and humility -- his uncompromising commitment to youth and famlies caught up in the juvenile justice system.
When I saw him at the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute in Miami in May 2011, I asked him to talk with me a little about what he saw as the most important next step in implementing Reclaming Futures. He reflected briefly on his thirty years of working with youth in the justice system and observed that family engagement was the key to success when he started, and it's still the key, despite years of focus on evidence-based practices in treatment.
But heck, I'll let him tell it. After all, he's a lot more inspiring than I:

I know from experience how hard it is to get a group of adults to sit down and talk productively about issues of systemic oppression and racism -- acknowledging these issues, with the goal of addressing them. I also know that the resulting conversations, if well-facilitated, can create and deepen relationships between co-workers, friends, and people who've never met before. 
But imagine doing it with kids on your probation caseload.
I was impressed, proud, and full of admiration when I learned that the Reclaiming Futures site in Bristol County, Massachusetts had done exactly that, and still is. In fact, the program got written up in their local paper.  
So when I got a chance to sit down with Estella Rebeiro, senior juvenile probation officer in Bristol County, to talk about the group for youth on probation that she ran with Deirdre Lopes, director of the H.O.P.E. (Healthy Opportunities for Peaceful Engagement) Collaborative, I grabbed it. Here's a brief video interview with Ms. Rebeiro, done at the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute held in May 2011:

The next Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) -- the only national conference solely devoted to adolescent substance abuse treatment -- has been scheduled for April 10-12, 2012, in Washington, D.C. 
Sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the nearly-annual conference is a fantastic opportunity to see top-notch presentations on ... well, you can check out the 2010 JMATE agenda here to get an idea.
There's no agenda yet for the 2012 event, but take it from me, you don't want to miss it. 
Want to be notified when you can register? Send your email to JMATE-info@jbsinternational.com.
Want to participate in the 2012 JMATE planning committees? Contact JMATE-info@jbsinternational.com.
 
 

Much to our dismay, A&E Network will air a second season of "Beyond 'Scared Straight,'" its hit reality-TV show, beginning August 18, 2011. As you may know, the program exposes a group of teens who've committed offenses to a group of adult prison inmates who scream, yell, and talk tough, in an effort to convince the kids to "going straight." 
There's a lot of problems with this approach, but the chief one is this: it doesn't work. There's not a single piece of independent research that indicates it's effective, and quite a lot that shows it isn't -- in fact, an overview of nine studies shows that youth who participate are more likely to commit crimes than kids who don't.  That may make for great television, but it's not good for the kids or our communities. 
We've given a lot of coverage in the past to why "Scared Straight" is a bad idea, so I'll just link to it here:

• Beyond "Scared Straight" – Moving to Programs that Actually Work
• U.S. Department of Justice: Scared Straight is "Scary and Ineffective"
• Scared Straight: Don’t Believe the Hype (Facts from CJJ)
• Scared Straight -- or Just Scared? Judges Speak Out Against "Beyond 'Scared Straight'"
• "Scared Straight" Programs on Hold in Two States

Photo: anna gutermuth under a Creative Commons license.

• SAMHSA Recovery Month Hosting Twitter Chat July 27 at 3:30 (EDT)
  The July RecoveryChat will focus on youth and recovery, and will be co-hosted by Danielle Tarino, board member for the Association of Recovery Schools and current SAMHSA team member. Can't attend? Tweet your questions to @RecoveryMonth in advance, using the hashtag #RecoveryChat. If you aren’t on Twitter, but are interested in asking a question, feel free to post questions on the Recovery Month Facebook Page or send questions in an e-mail to recoverymonthfan@samhsa.hhs.gov.
• How Much is Your State Spending on Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice and Youth?
  Youth Today is on a mission to capture state-by-state information as about youth-related spending decisions the effect on programs and services providers. Follow the link to check out figures for your state -- and let Youth Today if you have information that's missing.

Greg Berman, director of the Center for Court Innovation in New York City (seen at right), gives an excellent overview of how youth courts work in this video interview with JJIE.org. The courts are completely teen-driven, with teens as judges, attorneys and juries who hear actual cases either referred by the police or the courts. Each teen judge, attorney or juror gets 30 hours of training and has to pass a “bar exam” to be able to serve.
In the youth courts Berman’s center helps oversee, the kids running the courts come from a variety of backgrounds, so the offenders are being judged by their real peers. In fact, kids who once came before the court often come back later to serve as judges, attorneys and jurors, so Berman says it can be “a life changing experience.”
Kids sent to the court have already admitted guilt and are at the mercy of their peers to design the sanctions that will be administered.
The kids ask great questions, Berman says, and have “great BS detectors.” They listen to the individual cases and then the jury delivers a sanction that, according to Berman, tends to emphasize restoration.
The outcome might be a letter of apology, public service work or links to anger management. It turns peer pressure on its head, he says, making it a positive rather than a negative and that is the nub of the youth court idea.
Watch the video below for more details. You can download the manual on Recommended Practices for Youth Courts published by the Center for Court Innovation.