Juvenile Justice Reform

The importance of witnessed collections (for urine drug testing) cannot be over-emphasized. Urine collections that are not witnessed are of little or no abstinence assessment value because of the propensity of juvenile substance abusers not to provide a legitimate sample (denial, efforts to hide relapse/use).
The definition of “witnessed collections” is direct, full-frontal, line-of-sight observation -- basically, staring at a participant‘s genitals while he or she produces a urine sample.
Difficult? Yes! Uncomfortable? No doubt! Necessary? Absolutely critical!

News - Juvenile Justice System and Alcohol and Drugs

• Teens trapped in prison: "Nearly 10 percent of the inmates in Illinois' juvenile prisons have essentially completed their sentences — in some cases more than a year ago — but are stuck behind bars because they have no place to go, state records show." (Hat tip to the Campaign for Youth Justice.)
• Are teens in the criminal and juvenile justice systems getting younger? No, according to an analysis performed by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. The lead author of the study also teamed up with a professor of womens' studies at the University of Hawai'i to author an op-ed in The New York Times called "The Myth of Mean Girls." (The title says it all.)

I wasn't kidding when I said yesterday that the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is putting out a lot of grant opportunities for kids in the juvenile justice system.  Here's four more, this time focused on tribal youth:

• Tribal Youth National Mentoring Program (ddl May 17, 2010)
• Child Protection Programs in Tribal Communities (ddl May 27, 2010)
• Tribal Youth Field Initiated Research and Evaluation Programs (ddl May 17, 2010)
• Tribal Youth Program Training and Technical Assistance Program (ddl May 18, 2010)

There's plenty of chances to apply for funding for juvenile justice system work coming out of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) these days. Recently, OJJDP has announced monies for juvenile reentry, as well as grants to support existing juvenile mentoring programs at the community level; national-level support for mentoring for underserved populations; and support for multi-state regional mentoring programs.
Now, here's five (count 'em, five) more grants from OJJDP (and yes, two of them have to do with mentoring):

• Engaging Law Enforcement to Reduce Juvenile Crime, Victimization, and Delinquency (ddl May 19, 2010)
• Juvenile Drug Courts Mentoring and Support Services Initiative (ddl May 19, 2010)
• Mentoring Research Best Practices (ddl May 20, 2010)
• Support for Conferences on Juvenile Justice (ddl May 17, 2010)
• Youth Gang Prevention and Intervention Program (ddl May 20, 2010)

Did you know that juveniles don't have the right to a speedy trial under the U.S. Constitution? (Adults do.)
But given teens' developmental need for a clear connection between their behavior and its consequences -- not to mention the importance of addressing the needs of victims -- it's important for their cases to be processed as quickly as possible. 
Yet the time it took juvenile courts to process cases went up by 10% between 1995 and 2004, even though the number of cases dropped eight percent during the same time period. Obviously, that's not good. 
What's going on? For answers, check out a new Department of Justice (DOJ) report, Delays in Youth Justice, by Jeffrey Butts, Gretchen Ruth Cusick, and Benjamin Adams. It was produced under the auspices of the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.

 
[The following post is by an attorney who works with the Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL) program at the Reclaiming Futures site in Bristol County, MA. It's reposted with permission of the author and publisher from the CLTL Blog, Changing Lives, Changing Minds. You can learn more about Bristol County's experience with the program here. -Ed.]
 
A former colleague (an assistant district attorney) recently asked me if I was still involved with Judge Kane’s “bleeding heart book club.” We both laughed. In a more serious vein, he went on to ask whether I thought he might enjoy it, because he was approaching retirement and might have some time to – and it sounds like a cliché but really isn’t – “give back to the community.”

• The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is offering more funds to support mentoring for teens in the justice system. Through the Second Chance Act Mentoring Initiative, they're calling for proposals to support youth reentering their communities after incarceration. Deadline is April 27th, 2010. 

 

News and Research about the Juvenile Justice System

• California's voters will decide whether or not to legalize pot next November. Meanwhile, "fake weed," or K2 -- which is currently legal in all states except Kansas and which we mentioned on this blog a couple of weeks ago -- received more attention this week from CNN. It's not clear from the coverage how commonly synthetic marijuana is actually used among teens.
• Data from the MacArthur Foundation's Models for Change study, "Pathways to Desistance," provides further evidence that placing teens in institutional care (i.e., by incarcerating them or placing them in a residential facility) does not reduce recidivism -- in fact, it even increases recidivism for "low-level" offenders. Not only that, but "most youth with serious felony offenses ceased to re-offend after their contact with the system, regardless of the intervention."  (Hat tip to the National Juvenile Justice Network.)

Drug use among youth is a serious concern that cannot be solved by punishment. So it’s great to see the juvenile justice field increasingly considering and involving families. For example, the New York Governor’s Task Force on Transforming Juvenile Justice recently published a report that is replete with recommendations underscoring the importance of family. The report, developed with support from my colleagues at Vera’s Center on Youth Justice, reminded me of a comment by Derek Hitchcock of the Michigan Bureau of Juvenile Justice, who said, “We so often institutionalize our kids; any way to get them linking back to the outside is great.”
Vera’s Family Justice Program shares this goal, which helps drive our work with juvenile justice agencies, guiding them as they integrate family-focused, strength-based tools and methods that benefit incarcerated youth.
 
Sometimes, facility staff resist the idea of working with families, but it usually doesn’t take long before we’re discussing the benefits. I often just have to ask, “Who is the first person to know when a young person has relapsed?” or “When kids succeed, who celebrates with them?” Even if every family member does not provide support to a young person, identifying those individuals who do is important to the youth’s recovery and well-being.

Click on the video above to hear the story of one teen struggling with substance abuse in juvenile court at the Reclaiming Futures site in Montgomery County (Dayton), OH, and how Reclaiming Futures made a difference in her life.
Watch it now and share it with your colleagues! It's moving, informative, and extremely well-done.
We're grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for making the video. Congratulations to Judge Anthony Capizzi and Reclaiming Futures project director Charlotte McGuire and their entire team for all of their great work. 

[The following post is reprinted with permission from the blog at the Pongo Teen Writing website. The author has recently posted "Poetry as Treatment for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System" and "I Feel Like Weights Have Been Lifted" on this blog. Photo by Olivander. -Ed.]
 
 
At 10 years old, the girl was always home alone while her parents were out doing drugs. I asked if she was scared at the time. No, not for herself. She was worried about her parents. Now, at age 13 and in juvenile detention, the girl has been smoking bud and doing things she isn’t supposed to do. She wants her parents to worry about her for a change. She writes about her parents: “They’re the only people who will be there.” But her poem is titled “When Nobody Was There.”

Pongo’s teen authors will often write about drug and alcohol abuse. They give multiple and contradictory reasons for their involvement. For me, as a poet working with the youth, one of the toughest knots to unravel is the role of family. Substance abuse often seems like a response to emptiness at home and also a confirmation of family connection, however flawed. Teens seem to be filling an emotional void with drugs and alcohol, but also emulating someone they love. And parents sometimes give their children drugs and alcohol, playing an active role in both distancing and dependence. Family is very important.

Here are three teen poems from this year’s Pongo project in juvenile detention, that describe substance abuse in the context of family.