Juvenile Justice Reform

Having trouble rounding up mentors for youth in the juvenile justice system?
Then you won't want to miss this webinar from the National Reentry Resource Center and the Center for the Advancement of Mentoring titled, "Identifying and Engaging Reentry Mentors for Justice-Involved Youth." (Follow the link to register.)
[UPDATE (Nov. 12): Go here to access the archived webinar and PowerPoint slides.]
The second of two webinars, it's scheduled for 12:30 pm PST / 3:30 pm EST on November 1, 2010. It'll focus on working with family members to identify "pro-social support" for youth, as well as finding and training extended family and other "natural mentors" in each youth's life to support the mentor and help the young person return to the community.
All of which sounds like it would apply to any youth in the justice system, not just those reentering the community from a locked facility.
According to the press release, speakers will include:

• David Altschuler, Principal Research Scientist, Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies
• Shay Bilchik, Founder and Director, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, Georgetown University
• Roger Jarjoura, Associate Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Founder, Aftercare for the Incarcerated through Mentoring
• Dennis Talbert, President, Michigan Neighborhood Partnership

 
 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.)

Work with teens in the juvenile justice system who sit on a youth advisory council? Do you need some help coaching them on how to understand budgeting or how to build and use ... (drum roll, please) ... logic models? 
The Finance Project is way ahead of you. They've produced two excellent guides:

1. The Youth Guide to Budgeting
2. The Youth Guide to Developing Logic Models

 
(Hat tip to findyouthinfo.gov.)

Juvenile Justice System News and Speculation

For sheer breadth of coverage in the juvenile justice arena this week, you couldn't beat John Kelly of Youth Today.

1. First, Kelly covered a year-long, national survey on the use of psychotropic meds in juvenile justice facilities. Sixteen states participated; 17 didn't reply; the remainder did not comply for a variety of reasons, although it appeared that  many states did not track the drugs, or the diagnoses for which they were prescribed. Youth Today's coverage offered useful background on several of the most commonly-used drugs, and a point/counterpoint on whether they should be used as a first resort for behavior management, or whether their use helps make youth "treatment-ready."

The federal Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs wants your input on its strategic plan for youth policy. The group, made up of 12 federal agencies, oversees the excellent website on youth-related resources at www.FindYouthInfo.gov.
Now, it's true that they've been seeking input for a while, but the good news is that if you didn't participate back in May 2010, when I last posted about this, you've still got an opportunity. They've also adopted an interesting approach, using a "question of the month."
This month's question: "If you could design a neighborhood to support youth, what would it look like?"

Juvenile Justice News and Related News

• Raising alcohol taxes helps reduce crime, according to a new meta-analysis. I'm curious: would this also apply to crimes committed by teens? 
• This probation officer was once a juvenile offender herself -- a touching story of transformation, coincidentally set in Chicago, one of the original Reclaiming Futures sites. (Hat tip to @piper.)
• Social media is beginning to play a bigger role in the court room. Here's an article aimed at defense attorneys that gives examples (including at least one juvenile case) where what defendants share online is used against them; and where defendants have actively used Facebook and other media as a way to generate support for themselves. One implication: already overburdened defense attorneys must now monitor their clients' social media profiles for evidence that might be used against them. What's been your experience? Share a comment below. (Hat tip to Adriennce C. Barr via National Council of Juvenile and Famliy Court Judges.)

Consider this for a moment: 

What should recovery-oriented care for adolescents with substance abuse issues or co-occurring mental health issues look like? 

Have that picture firmly in your mind? Okay, good. Does it change if the youth in question are in the juvenile justice system? If so, how? 
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
To aid you in your thinking, I'm attaching a copy of the report from a 2008 meeting sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The report is titled, "Designing a Recovery-Oriented Care Model for Adolescents and Transition Age Youth with Substance Use or Co-Occurring Mental Health Disorders." Check out pp. 36-39 for themes from the meeting, along with specific recommendations. 
Just in case it's useful, you may also want to review this "Working Definition of Recovery." The actual definition's quite brief, but this two-page handout also includes guiding principles and elements of systems of care. Also, check out this report from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice called "Positive Youth Justice: Framing Justice Interventions Using the Concepts of Positive Youth Development." It offers insights about the benefits of using positive youth development to help youth contribute to community life.
Feel free to leave me a comment below.

Sometimes, it seems as though public attitudes about youth in the juvenile justice system haven't moved on since 1950, when the book pictured at right was published. But the next time you talk to policy makers about the need for more treatment options and positive activities for youth in the juvenile justice system, wouldn't it be great to be able to tell them that the majority of Americans:

• believe that rehabilitation and treatment can reduce crime AND are willing to pay extra taxes to provide those services;
• support rehabilitation even for young people who commit violent crimes;
• oppose young offenders being sent to adult criminal court without an individual determination made in each case;
• agree that non-white youth are more likely than white youth to be prosecuted as adults; and
• believe strongly in a separate juvenile justice system?

"Dream on," I can hear you saying. But it's no dream.

Juvenile Justice System News

• We're glad to welcome a new juvenile justice reform organization to the national ring this week: Families and Friends Organizing for Reform for Juvenile Justice. It was founded by Tracy McClard, whose son committed suicide in an adult facility - you can see her testify at a legislative hearing here. (Hat tip to @wildclearing.)
• Last week, I posted an announcement from the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) on its first round of grand awards to support mentoring for youth in the juvenile justice system (see next to last bullet).

Turns out I should've linked to John Kelly's column in Youth Today, where he laid out a very long list of recent grant awards in the juvenile justice arena (subscription required) from the OJP's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Among other things, he reported on awards for a multi-state mentoring initiative, violence prevention, gang prevention, family drug courts, and more.

Since suspensions and expulsions are correlated with involvement in the juvenile justice system, I posted yesterday about a new research report that showed that suspension is overused for middle school students and has a disparate impact on youth of color -- African American students in particular.
One solution: mediation. And here's evidence from two Connecticut schools that mediation lowers suspension and expulsion rates. (Hat tip to Abby Anderson of the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance.)
If that's not convincing enough, check out this international report (see photo) showing that restorative justice and mediation in the schools has a significant positive impact on student behavior. When these techniques were implemented in 10 schools in the U.S. and Canada, large drops occurred in suspensions and "behavioral incidents."
Has your school district used restorative justice? What's been your experience?