Juvenile Justice Reform

• Something to think about the next time you drug test a youth: one in five teens share prescription drugs (and so do 40% of adults). 
• Making methamphetamine is now easier, thanks to the growing popularity of an alternate, "shake and bake" method. It's easier for addicts to make in small batches and requires only a small amount of pseudophedrine to manufacture -- well under the mandatory limits set in place several years ago to halt meth's spread.  

• Should judges in the juvenile justice system use their position and influence to get people to come to meetings?

• Is it the judge’s obligation to take direct action – outside the courtroom – to fill gaps in the service continuum? 

Judges from eight Reclaiming Futures sites debated the ethics of these statements last week, at a workshop on August 28th in Greensboro, NC.
 
Being good jurists, they paid close attention to the wording of the statements, and disputed the idea that judges “should” get people to come to meetings, or were “obligated” to take “direct action” – and what was meant by “direct” action, by the way?

During the past few years, Rhode Island has been in the news regarding its approach to the juvenile justice system. In June of 2007, the General Assembly passed a law that required that 17-year-olds be tried as adults for any crime, and incarcerated at the adult prison.
The initial rationale for the change was that it was a cost-saving measure because the average cost of incarceration at the adult prison was thought to be less than incarceration at the Juvenile Training School. However, it was then determined that the 17-year-olds would have to be incarcerated in the high security wing of the adult prison to separate them from the adult population, which was costlier than housing them at the Training School. Despite this finding, the law was passed and put into effect.

Is your jurisdiction engaged in reforming its juvenile justice system? Want to make sure everything goes as planned?
Then check out a new guide from the Center for Court Innovation and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, titled Avoiding Failures of Implementation: Lessons from Process Evaluations.

• The so-called "Missouri Model" of juvenile justice reform received more coverage on CNN.
• Meanwhile, Louisiana, which has been attempting for several years to reform its own juvenile justice system by importing the Missouri Model, is seeing mixed results.
• The New York Times reported that four youth prisons in New York routinely broke kids' bones, "shattered" their teeth, and gave them concussions in attempts to discipline them.

Heated discussions arise over the societal factors that lead to juvenile criminality and the ways that public institutions fail to curtail them. A team of experts with decades of collective hands-on experience presents a book that cuts through the hype and paranoia to offer real solutions. Dispatches from Juvenile Hall – Fixing a Failing System, cuts through the war between “soft on crime” and “tough on crime” to deliver an alternative that is “smart on crime” – a progressive approach, based on the latest findings that incorporate corrections responses, treatment, and family-focused interventions.

When it comes to the juvenile justice system and adolescent substance abuse, there's always something cooking. Check out this week's bonanza of resources and new stories:

• Washington, D.C.'s juvenile justice agency is offering a free service to the elderly: lawns mowed by teens doing community service.
• Nicholas D. Kristof, writing in The New York Times, argued that it makes little sense -- financial or otherwise -- to prioritize prisons over health care. 

Adolescent substance abuse in the juvenile justice system is the subject of Laurie Chassin's excellent article in the Fall 2008 issue of The Future of Children.
But I urge you to check out the entire issue, whose theme is "juvenile justice." Edited by Laurence Steinberg (whose recent book, Rethinking Juvenile Justice, we gave away last March), the journal brings together research from a number of scholars connected with the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. 

One of the key parts of the Reclaiming Futures model is "beyond treatment":  connecting kids in the juvenile justice system with a network of positive adults, services, and activities that will sustain them when they leave probation, incarceration, or treatment.
No problem, right? Well, as anyone who's ever wrestled with this problem knows, it's a huge problem. It can be hard for probation officers and treatment counselors to keep up with what's available. Then, too, there's the always-tricky issue of what services or activies are appropriate for which kids. 
So here's an idea from Community YouthMapping (CYM): ask the kids to help you map the services; together, you can canvass neighborhoods in search of places to go and things to do. It's a great opportunity to harness their energy, given them skills, and model pro-social behavior, and you'll often find resources you wouldn't find otherwise. 

• Juvenile justice reform seemed to be on the mind of The New York Times last week, at least judging by its article documenting the increasing burden placed on the juvenile justice system by growing numbers of mentally ill youth, which was closely followed by an editorial bluntly favoring juvenile detention reform. Meanwhile, Barbara Ehrenreich, in a long op-ed on the criminalization of poverty, condemned recent trends to criminalize and fine kids for truancy.