Blog: Juvenile Justice Reform

• Legislative Victories Removing Youth from Adult Criminal Justice System
  The Campaign for Youth Justice released a report on the growing number of states changing their policies to keep more kids out of adult lockup.
• Hardin County, OH Embraces Reclaiming Futures
  Reclaiming Futures Hardin County got great coverage in the March 26, 2011 issue of the Kenton Times. Random quotes: Scott Mitchell, treatment court graduate, said, “I did a complete 180." Judge James Rapp: "If we are there for [the kids], they will be successful.” Follow the link to learn more.
• Do it YO Way - Mentors Guide Youth in Bristol County, MA
  After receiving training in anti-oppressive practices (follow link and scroll to find webinars, PowerPoints, and other resources), the Reclaiming Futures Bristol County team "developed 'YO', a pilot program which exposed seven young men from diverse ethnic backgrounds to the practices of oppressiveness and privilege."

  In an intense, 12-week program, they worked with adult mentors on "how to be successful in the face of the challenges they face in their daily lives."

  As Deirdre Lopes, director of the H.O.P.E. (Healthy Opportunities for Peaceful Engagement) Collaborative said, "We can tell them whatever we want, but there's no substitute for showing them. That's what really has an impact."

  Click the headline to see the April 5, 2011 story from South Coast Today.

Children who witness violence often think it is normal, a development that can lead to violent behavior, says a new study in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
The researchers, who surveyed 800 children between the ages of 8 and 12, asked the children if they had witnessed violence on television, at home or at school.  Six months later they were polled a second time.  Children who said they had witnessed violence were aggressive, according to the study.
“People exposed to a heavy diet of violence come to believe that aggression is a normal way to solve conflict and get what you want in life,” the study’s authors wrote.  “These beliefs lower their inhibitions against aggression against others.”
The full study is available by subscription only, but you can read more at ScienceDaily.

Some of you may have heard this disturbing account of a drug court in Glynn County, Georiga, aired recently on "This American Life."
Usually, a drug court may take a year, possible two years, to complete.  For 24-year-old Lindsey Dills, who was 18 when she entered the Glynn County juvenile drug court, she won't be done with it until 10-1/2 years later, counting time behind bars and probation. 
Now, the show makes it clear that this particular Georgia drug court is commonly thought to be run counter to generally-accepted principles of drug court.
But I thought it would be a good time to mention the so-called :"16 strategies" for juvenile drug courts.  (Follow the link for a monograph from the Department of Justice, explaining the details.)
Here they are:

Research has shown that punishment alone is not the most effective way to to help a young person change his or her behavior -- the primary goal of juvenile drug courts, and, indeed, juvenile probation generally. Instead, a combination of punishment, or sanctions, with incentives, is most effective.
But if you want to act on this information, you're likely to have a number of questions. Here's just a few of the questions that commonly arise:

1. Is there a ready-made list of sanctions and incentives we could use?
2. Should we start out giving a strong sanction to get the offender’s attention, or should we build up to that?
3. Are we coddling offenders by giving them incentives?
4. Does it matter how long you wait after the behavior is detected to give a sanction or incentive?

And that's just the beginning.  To help you make sense of the options -- and to give you several lists of ideas for your own graduated sanctions and incentives grid -- I'm posting a number of resources here.
From NCJFCJ (and shared with permission):

• "Making Sense of Incentives and Sanctions in Working with the Substance Abusing Offender," by Susan Yeres, Ed.D., Betty Gurnell, M.Ed., Meg Holmberg, MSW. (This excellent guide is where I got the four questions above -- download it to see eight more common questions, and  answers to all 12.)
• Need ideas for incentives and sanctions? Then try the NCJFCJ's "laundry list." 
• How can you afford to pay for incentives? What if the teen doesn't react the way we thought he or she would? You can find answers to these and other questions in the NCJFCJ's frequently asked questions document.

If your team is working on implementing incentives and sanctions together, you'll probably want these as well, also from the NCJFCJ:

• Youth in Recovery Paint the Town - with a Mural Celebrating Healthy Living - Youth in recovery are eager to contribute to the community, and share their experiences and their creativity. So Reclaiming Futures Forsyth County, in North Carolina, worked with a local artist to help them paint a huge mural about recovery and healthy living on the side of a building (see before-and-during photos at right) that was formerly an eyesore. >>Full story here.
• Juvenile Court Supervisor, Coach -- and Institution - You might not know Lawrence Bass, but you should. He's been a steadying force in the lives of teens on the basketball court and in juvenile court in Guilford County, NC (a Reclaiming Futures site) for 40 years now. The News & Record in Greensboro, NC -- where he works as a juvenile court supervisor -- recently profiled him; check it out!
• Private Juvenile/Adult Prison in Mississippi Source of Profits -- and Abuse - The Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU National Prison Project have filed a class-action lawsuit over Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Mississippi. "If there's mistreatment going on at Walnut Grove and the Justice Department finds that it is, they ought to sue the hell out of somebody," says state representative John Mayo. "I can't understand why we have to be sued to do what's right."
• Where Did the Jobs for Teens Go? - Youth Today has the story on a new study from the Center for Labor Market Studies showing that the number of employed teens aged 16-19 with jobs has dropped significantly. Also: teens who work in high school are more likely to graduate; low-income teens without jobs are more likely to engage in crime.
• Why Juvenile Justice Reform Makes Sense to Conservatives - Juvenile justice reform -- traditionally a liberal cause -- aligns very well with conservative political principles, Marc Levin, of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, explains in this PowerPoint. This is a great resource to draw upon when you're advocating for juvenile justice reform in your own community -- reform can be a uniter, not a divider. (Hat tip to John Kelly at Youth Today.) 

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has announced the following funding opportunities:
1. Community-Based Violence Prevention Demonstration Program - deadline May 23, 2011
2. Mentoring for Youth with Disabilities Initiative -- deadline May 16, 2011
3. State Juvenile Justice Formula and Block Grants Training and Technical Assistance Program -- deadline May 16, 2011
Resources:
To obtain further information about the above and other current OJJDP solicitations, including eligibility criteria and application deadlines, visit http://www.ojjdp.gov/funding/FundingList.asp.
 

Does the juvenile justice system really work? 
Reading comments from readers on news stories about youth in trouble, you'd think the juvenile justice system was designed to mollycoddle dangerous kids, turning them into super-predators.
Nothing could be further from the truth. 
Among other reasons, we know this because of "Pathways to Desistance," a research study led by Edward P. Mulvey, Director of the Law and Psychiatry Program at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. (Dr. Mulvey and Carol Schubert contributed a post to us on their findings in April 2010.)
The "Pathways to Desistance" research study is a unique study of what works in the juvenile justice system. This large, multi-site research project followed 1,354 serious juvenile offenders for seven years. An informative brief on the study findings was released in 2009 by the MacArthur Foundation; now, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released another fact sheet, titled, "Highlights From Pathways to Desistance: A Longitudinal Study of Serious Adolescent Offenders."
Here's what the study found:

In a recent column, I compared the costs of trying teens in the juvenile justice system and trying them as adults. Some argue that trying youth in adult criminal court is cheaper than trying them in juvenile court, and I pointed to research showing that while trying kids in juvenile court may cost more money upfront, the rehabilitative approach saves money in the long run.
One of the reasons it can cost a lot to try youth in juvenile or adult court is the need to detain some teens while their cases are resolved. And there's no question that the cost of juvenile pretrial detention is enormous. This is true whether “costs” are seen in the effects on individuals and communities, or in more cynical terms of dollars and cents.
However, both of these costs go up when kids are placed in detention at adult facilities.  
Pretrial detention in an adult facility is extremely perilous to youth. Compared to their counterparts in juvenile detention, kids held in adult facilities are 36% more likely to commit suicide. And, although youth under 18 make up less than 1% of the total population in adult facilities, they comprise 21% of the victims of inmate perpetrated sexual assault. The longer youth stay in adult facilities, the greater these risks become.

• White House May Rethink its Juvenile Justice Spending Plan
  In mid-February, Youth Today reported that President Obama's budget contained a proposal to radically change federal juvenile justice funding for the states. Now, Youth Today's John Kelly reports that it may be reconsidering, after strongly negative reactions from juvenile justice advocates.
• VIDEO: Mississippi County Sued After Video Reveals "Hogtied" Youth and Other Abuse
  The Southern Poverty Law Center has sued Forrest County, Missisissippi, over revelations of numerous instances of juvenile detention center personnel physically abusing youth in their care (many documented on surveillance video cameras) and force them to allow youth access to lawyers and civil rights advocates, in accord with federal law. Follow the link to see the video coverage. (Hat tip to sparkaction.)