Blog: No bio box

The only national conference to focus exclusively on adolescent substance abuse treatment -- the Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness -- has extended the deadline for submitting presentation proposal abstracts from June 4, 2010 to July 1, 2010.  
You can learn more about the conference on its web site or in our recent posts:

• JMATE Call for Presentations and More, by Michael Dennis, Ph.D.
• Find JMATE on Facebook.

Photo: energeticspell under CC license.

On Monday, April 19th 2010, Nassau County’s Family Court Deputy County Attorney’s Office was advised that the county was restructuring the department. Our Juvenile Treatment Court prosecutors, Gregg Roth and Arianne Reyer, were advised their services were no longer needed as of Friday, April 30th. Arianne was later given a temporary reprieve, but Gregg is gone.
This move was devastating to the treatment court and to the Reclaiming Futures initiative here, which had built a cohesive working group over the last three years. Just as when I was younger and my brother left home for the military, it had never occurred to me that anyone would ever leave our team. I am left feeling abandoned and alone with Gregg’s departure, just like I did when my brother went off to the Army. Our Nassau County Juvenile Treatment Court/Reclaiming Futures Change Team is family, and one of us is no longer here.

[The following post is reprinted with permission from the blog at the Pongo Teen Writing website. The author has recently posted "Writing from Kids in the Juvenile Justice System: In My Blood to Be a Drunk" and "Poetry as Treatment for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System" on this blog.  Photo by hojusaram. -Ed.]
 
Though Pongo is completely focused on the youth in the program, there have been a few surprising times when the teens have taken care of me. I appreciate it, but I also think it shows a talent in them.

I remember working with a young man in juvenile detention who was gang involved. He wrote about feeling forced to be a man, in the gang way, by carrying a gun on the streets and dealing drugs. He wrote about not knowing any other life. On a deeper level, he wrote about not having a dad, about struggles with loneliness.  He had been suspicious of the writing at first, and we talked for a long time before we began. But when we were done, as he was leaving, he turned to me and said, “It’s very nice of you, sir, to take your time to help young people.”

Once I was leading a poetry workshop with a large group of youth at the state psychiatric hospital. After a nice beginning, they wanted to move on from the writing activities that I had brought. They wanted to write on their own, about issues that were very much on their minds. They worked quietly. And as they finished I would call individuals forward to read. While each person read, the other youth would pause, listen, and applaud, and then continue with their own work. Though I rarely become emotional while working with kids, the writing in this session was so poignant, dealing with suicidal feelings, that I started to cry. The group was calm and quiet, and one teen walked to the back of the room to get me a box of tissues. And we carried on.

Juvenile Justice System and Adolescent Behavioral Health News

• Despite years of attention being drawn to the problem, mental health issues are still rife among teens in the juvenile justice system, according to a post from Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice. What's more, a recent study in Pediatrics indicates that youth in juvenile detention may be four times more likely to die than youth in the general population, and this risk factor is higher for youth of color and for girls. 
• Juvenile courts and adult courts are struggling with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), which may afflict many of their clients. Individuals with FASD may appear able to understand the consequences of their actions, but cannot; awareness among juvenile court staff is recommended as a first step. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatricians has recommended that all youth should be screened for alcohol beginning in middle school.
• A detailed update by Youth Today from Luzerne County, PA on the judges involved in the kids-for-cash scandal, and what the government plans to prove at trial. 
• It's About Time Department: economists and educators argue that policy makers need to start preparing alternatives for kids who aren't going to college.
• An interesting review of two books on a topic you don't see much about in young adult books: life in the juvenile justice system. 

[The following is reposted in its entirety from an e-newsletter sent out by the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN) and is reprinted with permission. -Ed.]
The National Juvenile Justice Network commends the May 17, 2010 holding by the Supreme Court of the United States that it is unconstitutional to sentence youth who did not commit homicide to life without the possibility of parole. Graham v. Florida broadly condemns the sentence of life without parole for youth who have not committed homicide, finding the punishment to be cruel and unusual. The opinion draws upon our national evolving standards of decency demonstrated in part by the fact that only 129 non-homicide youth offenders are currently serving life without parole sentences in only 12 states. 

The strongly worded opinion affirms the fact that youth have lessened culpability than adults, and that youth’s developing brains make it impossible to determine if they are beyond rehabilitation. Reiterating many of the findings from Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), regarding youth’s lack of maturity, underdeveloped sense of responsibility and vulnerability to outside, especially peer, pressure, the Court states that youth cannot be “classified among the worst offenders.” Furthermore, “no recent data provide reasons to reconsider” the Court’s observations in Roper, and “developments in psychology and brain science continue to showfundamental differences between juvenile and adult minds.”

Juveniles may not be sentenced to life without parole for crimes short of homicide, according to a 5-4 Supreme Court decision. While teens may be given life sentences, the court ruled that they must have the opportunity to apply for eventual release. In doing so, the court recognized the unique developmental stage of adolescence, and the possibility of young people's maturation and redemption.
I would argue that the ruling should be extended to include homicides as well -- at least on a case-by-case basis.  But what do you think? 

Juvenile Justice System News

• Chicago Public Radio's excellent series, Inside and Out, recently covered racial disparities in the Illinois juvenile justice system, and explored them in a live community forum. 
• In an editorial, The New York Times urges support for bills in Congress that would create a blue-ribbon commission on fixing the criminal justice system. Among other items on the fix-it list: incarcerating nonviolent offenders. 
• Federal funding for at-risk youth from ... the National Endowment for the Arts? Yes! In partnership with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the NEA 's Shakespeare for a New Generation program will fund six theatre companies to provide educational activities and performances to youth in the juvenile justice system. 

Want to Help Teens in the Justice System Recover from Addiction?

Join William White of Chestnut Health Systems Lighthouse Institute for a free webinar sponsored by Reclaiming Futures on "Adolescent Recovery Networks." Mr. White will present on recovery movements and recovery network models, and discuss ways that adolescent substance abuse treatment systems can develop strong recovery systems.
To participate, log on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 10:30 am PST / 1:30 pm EST. (Follow the link above to register.) PLEASE NOTE: The presentation will run 90 minutes, and up to an hour will be provided for questions, so make sure you block out enough time!

 
UPDATE: You can listen to a recording of "Adolescent Recovery Networks" or download the presentation slides here.
 
RELATED Post: Be sure to check out our handy reference list of evidence-based models for treating adolescent substance abuse.

The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform just released a new paper on “Addressing the Unmet Educational Needs of Children and Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems." It's co-authored by Dr. Peter Leone from the University of Maryland and Dr. Lois Weinberg from California State University, Los Angeles. 
 
The authors offer six principles to address the educational needs of these "crossover youth," as well as policy and practice steps to improve their outcomes.