Blog: Funding

[NOTE: The date and time of the webinar have been changed to June 27th at 2 p.m. EST. -Ed.]
Via the National Reentry Resource Center:

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) recently released the solicitation for Second Chance Act grant applications to state and local governments and federally recognized Indian tribes for juvenile reentry planning and demonstration projects (Section 101 of Public Law 110-199). This funding is available to help jurisdictions plan and implement programs and strategies to reduce recidivism and ensure safe and successful reentry of juveniles released from prisons, jails, and juvenile detention facilities back to the community.
The deadline for submitting an application is July 11, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
To download the solicitation, click here
To help potential applicants respond to this solicitation, the National Reentry Resource Center will hold a free webinar on Monday, June 20th at 3:00 p.m. ET. June 27th at 2:00 p.m. EST. Representatives from OJJDP will explain the details of the solicitation and answer questions from applicants. To register for the webinar, click here.

If you care about adolescent substance abuse treatment (and mental health treatment), this is really important.
As I posted recently, SAMHSA is proposing big changes to its mental health and alcohol and drug treatment block grants. They want your comments by this Friday, June 3, 2011 June 9, 2011.
Ho-hum, right?
Far from it. We need you and everyone you know to submit comments to support SAMHSA's inclusion of adolescents/youth as a target population by Friday (see below for a draft message you can use or adapt).

>>Submit your email comments to SAMHSA the easy way, using this action alert from sparkaction.

Recently, we posted about the Obama administration's plan to overhaul juvenile justice funding given to states. While the funding plan would have eliminated juvenile justice earmarks (if I remember correctly), it also would have made almost all of the remaining monies available only on a competitive basis.
Further, states would only be eligible to apply for the funds if they were in compliance with the core provisions of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) -- things like keeping status offenders out of the justice system, keeping teens in lock up out of sight and sound of adult offenders, and making serious efforts to address disproportionate minority contact.  (This was a big change, as states have historically received federal funding to help them comply with the JJDPA. Critics have worried that the amount of funding has gotten small enough that states might soon opt out of the JJDPA in large numbers.) 
The funding proposal came under heavy fire from the Justice Policy Institute, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and the Campaign for Youth Justice - all of whom feared the proposal weakened juvenlie justice reform efforts. Another concern was that the administration's adoption of a "Race to the Top" funding competition model was being applied to the bulk of juvenile justice funds, whereas it was used for approxiomately 1% of federal education dollars. 
This morning, I woke up to news from @heatherkellyphd and from the National Council on Crime & Deliquency that the Obama administration had heard the criticisms, and reversed course.  Here's the official word, via JUVJUST:  

As of March 15, the state of Illinois is cutting its $54 million budget for alcohol and drug treatment and prevention services to zero (full disclosure: I wrote the news summary linked to here).
That's right: zero. 
According to providers, that means many of them will shut down. 
What's left, without state money? According to provider representatives, about 80 percent of their clients (or about 55,000 people) get treatment funded by the state, leaving 20 percent of their clients who are covered by Medicaid -- -- women only, though. The state will reportedly be cutting the amounts it reimburses for Medicaid services by six percent.
What's not precisely clear from news reports is the impact on youth treatment. Prevention services serving about 230,000 youth a year are definitely gone, but children's treatment can be covered by Medicaid - I'm not sure how that's handled in Illinois. However, in my experience, most treatment agencies rely on the volume of their adult treatment programs to support their youth treatment programs. Without the mix, I would guess that many youth programs -- even those billing Medicaid -- might not survive.  

You can now apply to the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) for a grant under the Second Chance Act to "establish programs to train individuals in prisons, jails, or juvenile residential facilities for technology-based jobs and careers during the three-year period before their release." (It's not just for juveniles - it's for adults, too.) 
Webinar: The National Reentry Resource Center will hold a webinar for interesed applicants January 19, 2011 at 11 am PST / 2 pm EST. >>Register here.
Deadline to Apply: March 3, 2011.

• Growth in Corrections Spending 1987-2007 Dwarfed Spending on Higher Ed (see image at right) - Curious about where your state stands? Follow the link and check the graph.  It would be interesting to see the same data comparing spending on the juvenile justice system with middle- and high-school spending.  (Hat tip to Jim Carlton.) 
• Gay Teens Are Punished More Heavily in School and in Juvenile Court - From The New York Times: A national study of 15,000 middle school and high school teens published in Pediatrics found that gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens are more likely to be expelled from school than their straight peers, and more likely to be stopped, arrested, and adjudicated.  And "it's not because they're misbehaving more," says the study's lead author, Kathryn Himmelstein. (Hat tip to Dan Merrigan.)

Now's your chance to apply for a 2011 YouthBuild grant from the Department of Labor. The grant announcement describes YouthBuild this way:

[YouthBuild is] a youth development program that combines education, career training, and community service. In YouthBuild, out-of-school youth ages 16-24 obtain high school diplomas or GEDs while getting certified in construction and building low-cost housing for families in their communities.  

Grant amounts are expected to range between $700,000 and $1.1 million for up to three years of funding (two years of program operations, with one year of follow-up). But applicants will need to have formed (or work with an existing) collaborative that includes education/training, workforce investment, juvenile justice, and faith-based and community partners. Applications are due December 3, 2010.
 
More info: see the YouthBuild notice in The Federal Register.

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.

Last year, we posted about a hugely important study by the Center for Court Innovation. In it, young people reported that they did not receive a clear explanation of the juvenile justice system when they entered. Nor did they -- or their parents and guardians -- learn how their actions affected what happens in juvenile court. 
Our Reclaiming Futures site in Orange/Chatham Counties, North Carolina is trying to change this and created the video above for parents/guardians of youth entering juvenile court. Congratulations!  (They're also working on a handbook for youth; I'll share it when it's available.)
Has your jurisdiction done something similar? Leave a comment or drop me an email and we'll be glad to post it!