Juvenile Justice Reform

Juvenile Justice Reform News

• As of January 1st, Connecticut has begun handling 16-year-old youth who break the law as juveniles, not as adults. Similarly, Illinois has also changed its policies and will now handle 17-year-olds who commit misdemeanors as juveniles.
• About 1 in 3 youth reported being sexually victimized by their peers or by staff in 13 juvenile detention centers nationwide, according to a Justice Department survey. The survey is the first of its kind and was given to about 9,000 youth. On average, it found that about 12% of youth in detention centers report being sexually victimized. You can read more about it (and find a link to the report) on Youth Today, with even more information here about what action might be taken federally. Some jurisdictions dispute the federal findings, in one case because the numbers are so different from in-house surveys.

Last month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released a "grant results report" on the first seven years of Reclaiming Futures.
You can read the summary; useful sidebars, such as the testimony of a teen from Portland, OR before congressional staffers on the importance of Reclaiming Futures in helping her get off meth; or "Lessons Learned" from the project directors of the 10 founding sites.
Go here to access the entire grants results report for an in-depth perspective on how this initiative helps communities improve adolescent substance abuse treatment for youth in the justice system.

It's safe to assume that we'd all like to see youth violence reduced if not eliminated. And there's plenty of work going on in this area.
But there are some major obstacles to successfully addressing youth violence in a systemic, effective way, argue Lori Dorfman, DrPH, and Lawrence Wallack, DrPH, authors of a fascinating paper called, "Moving from Them to Us - Challenges in Reframing Violence Among Youth." [Dr. Wallack is a colleague of Dr. Laura Nissen, the national director of Reclaiming Futures.]
One of the most important obstacles: violence is almost always framed -- especially in the media -- as the responsibility of an individual. And while it's true that individual choice is part of the explanation, it's not the whole explanation. By talking about violence only in terms of individuals, we subtly suggest that there's nothing that can be done to prevent it. That makes it difficult for anti-violence advocates, who know that violence can be reduced and prevented by a broad-based focus on the environmental factors that contribute to it.

Only recently, I shared our 10 most popular posts, eight of the best resources published on this blog on improving adolescent drug treatment, and a list of positive activities for kids in the justice system. (That was all to celebrate the blog's first birthday, in November.)
But looking back over our posts for 2009, I see we never compiled a list of the most important stories of the year. Stories, in other words, that might herald major shifts in policy, breakthroughs in the research, or that were important enough to make the national news.  Those, then, comprise the 20 stories I've collected below.

Got a juvenile drug court that's been operational for at least one year? Want to expand its treatment capacity?
Purpose of the grant: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is giving away nearly nine million dollars to help you "expand and/or enhance substance abuse treatment services in juvenile drug courts to "provide alcohol and drug treatment, recovery support services supporting substance abuse treatment, screening, assessment, case management, and program coordination to juvenile defendants/offenders. Priority for the use of the funding should be given to addressing gaps in the existing continuum of treatment."
Award amounts: SAMHSA expects to give away 27 grants amounting to approximately $325,000/year each for up to three years.
Application deadline: Grants are due February 23, 2010.
 
(Photo by borman818.)

Are you a juvenile defender or Legal Aid attorney working in the juvenile justice system?
The American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section wants your help and input. It wants to collect state-by-state information on statutes, regulations, and practices that worsen the impact when kids get involved in the juvenile justice system.
In other words, it's looking for anything that might "affect a youth’s access to public education, employment, public housing, public benefits, voting rights, and other sources of opportunity and support."
The initiative has three goals:

Grants Available for Juvenile Reentry Projects

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance are requesting applications for adult and juvenile reentry demonstration grants under the 2007 Second Chance Act.
Grants may be made for either adult or juvenile reentry projects, may amount to as much as $750,000, and could last anywhere from one to three years, depending on a variety of factors. The emphasis will be on providing comprehensive services to offenders vs. a single program; collaboration between agencies will be favored.
The deadline to apply is March 10, 2010.

Image by JKim1.

Juvenile Justice: OJJDP at 35

• Almost all of the past administrators of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) gathered at a historic forum in Washington, D.C. to celebrate OJJDP's 35th birthday and reflect on their successes and challenges. The forum, held in November, was organized by Youth Today.

Poetry can heal traumatized youth. It also creates a community of openness, connectedness, and strength, which helps treatment providers. Poetry particularly serves teens who have a hard time expressing themselves. Here is a poem by Payton (pseudonym), a first-time writer in juvenile detention:
I am 15 and I am lost don't know
what to do.  lost because I get no love.
lost because I messed up my life.
lost because my dad left for some
women.  lost because I got caught
up in gangs.  lost because I lost
real friends my family.  lost
because I screwed my life
up.  lost because I lost
respect and trust.  lost
because I am a kleptomaniac.
lost because I don't show enough
love or respect to peers or elders.
lost because I am always in detention.
lost because I got nowhere to hide.
lost because I got no guardians.

The Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) is pleased to announce its 2010 Annual National Conference, Hill Day and Member Meeting, to be held April 10-13 at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown, Washington, DC.
The theme of the conference, “Ensuring School Engagement and Success for Youth At-Risk” is expected to draw more than 250 juvenile justice practitioners and advocates from across the U.S. and its territories.
 
Primary goals for the 2010 CJJ annual conference include: