Blog: No bio box

In mid-March, “CASPAR,” a treatment-improving system developed and evaluated at the Treatment Research Institute (TRI), was designated an evidence-based practice on SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP). 
 
This Computer-Assisted System for Patient Assessment and Referral (CASPAR) uses technology to promote validated assessment of substance abuse patients along with corresponding referral to community-based, free or low-cost services addressing various client needs. By “needs” I mean those needs that can’t be met on-site, such as medical and dental services, job training, getting a driver’s license reinstated and most any other type of service needed.
 
Although we pitch the system on the TRI website for use with adult clients, it can also be used to find referrals for adolescents with substance use/abuse problems. Criminal justice case managers, those providing brief interventions in physician offices, etc. can also use CASPAR.

Drug use among youth is a serious concern that cannot be solved by punishment. So it’s great to see the juvenile justice field increasingly considering and involving families. For example, the New York Governor’s Task Force on Transforming Juvenile Justice recently published a report that is replete with recommendations underscoring the importance of family. The report, developed with support from my colleagues at Vera’s Center on Youth Justice, reminded me of a comment by Derek Hitchcock of the Michigan Bureau of Juvenile Justice, who said, “We so often institutionalize our kids; any way to get them linking back to the outside is great.”
Vera’s Family Justice Program shares this goal, which helps drive our work with juvenile justice agencies, guiding them as they integrate family-focused, strength-based tools and methods that benefit incarcerated youth.
 
Sometimes, facility staff resist the idea of working with families, but it usually doesn’t take long before we’re discussing the benefits. I often just have to ask, “Who is the first person to know when a young person has relapsed?” or “When kids succeed, who celebrates with them?” Even if every family member does not provide support to a young person, identifying those individuals who do is important to the youth’s recovery and well-being.

• A former L.A. gang member has found an unusual way to help young teens avoid juvenile crime and gangs: pigeons. Click on the video above to see the CBS story, or here for the print version. (Hat tip to Cheryl Reed.)

 
Juvenile Justice News

• The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) has voted to endorse the elimination of the "Valid Court Order exception." Juvenile justice reformers have tied these exceptions to the overuse of detention for teens who commit status offenses (running away, skipping school, violating curfew). For background, see this brief 2008 summary of the issue, and Monday's article from Youth Today.
• Schools' zero tolerance policies feed the school-to-prison pipeline, so it's encouraging to see in The New York Times that these policies are being seriously questioned by scholars and educators -- and have now led to a legal challenge in North Carolina. 

Every September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) celebrates National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month (Recovery Month).
 
Recovery Month serves to educate the public on how substance abuse contributes to the national health crisis, that addiction is a treatable disease, and that recovery is possible. Although Recovery Month is officially observed in September, we continue to raise awareness about the hope of treatment and recovery throughout the year.

Juvenile Justice System - Grants

Here's links to several funding opportunities and a specific fundor. Not all are juvenile-specific. The pool of plausible applicants for several of these will be quite narrow. 

• First, a national mentoring grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), which is intended to provide support and enhancement for community-level mentoring programs for "high-risk populations that are underserved due to location, shortage of mentors, special physical or mental challenges of the targeted population," and so on. OJJDP also issued a similar grant solicitation on a regional, multi-state level. Application deadline (for both): April 22, 2010.
• Alternatively, you can start a new family drug court or enhance an existing one with OJJDP grant funds. Though not focused on teens in the justice system, these funds could provide needed support for substance-using adults in your community's dependency court. Application deadline: April 27, 2010.
• You could also bid on providing technical assistance to the State Advisory Groups (SAGs) in juvenile justice. Applications are due April 29, 2010.
• If you want to do research in the juvenile justice system, Youth Today lists a few more funding opportunities.
• Finally, you might be able to get useful project support from the Public Welfare Foundation, which likes to focus on systemic change. Juvenile justice is a focus area for the foundation. 

[The following column appeared in the February 2010 Campaign for Youth Justice e-newsletter, and is reprinted with permission. It has been edited slightly to incorporate hyperlinks into the text. - Ed.]
The Campaign for Youth Justice recently released a guide for families who want to do something to change the foolish and ineffective practice of trying our children as adults. Our new guide is entitled, "Families in Power: Family Guide to Networking, Coalition Building, Organizing and Campaign Building."  The guide provides basic information about how families and allies can begin to organize themselves and others to change  transfer practices and other overly punitive policies that negatively affect our children and our communities. 

Here is one highlight from this new guide:

The first step in creating powerful families and organizing others is developing a way to talk about your issue with a wide variety of audiences.  Many organizers refer to this as your "rap."  Your rap about the transfer of children into the adult correctional and court systems should be your 30-second commercial that is designed to open up dialogue with others.  It should include: a fact or two about youth transfer in order to educate people who may not know about transfer laws, why this is issue is important to you, and what you need from the person you are talking to.  Be sure you have your facts down and that they are accurate.  There are several fact sheets on the Campaign's website that can help you easily identify important facts.  The best fact sheet to use summarizes the findings of CFYJ's Jailing Juveniles report and speaks to the danger children face in jails every day in this country.   

Have a youth mentoring program that's been up and running for at least a year?
You might consider applying for new mentoring grants from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). To "reduce juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, truancy, and other problem and high-risk behaviors," OJJDP wants to

enhance the capacity and effectiveness of established mentoring programs by: (1) augmenting the involvement of and services for the mentoring participants' parents; (2) expanding structured activities and opportunities for the mentors and mentoring participant(s); and (3) increasing the availability of ongoing mentor training and support.

Programs can use the grant to accomplish one or more of those three things.  Awards will fall between $200,000 and $500,000 for 18 to 36 months. Application deadline is April 14, 2010.
Photo by Alaska Youth for Environmental Action.

Juvenile Justice System and Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment News

• At a recent symposium, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the indigent defense system was in "crisis." Now, the Department of Justice is launching "Access to Justice" to begin to work on solutions. (Hat tip to @piper.)
• The Attorney General also announced the creation of the Tribal Nations Leadership Council to advise him. Its formation "marks the first time a council composed of tribal leaders selected by tribal governments will advise Justice Department leadership on an ongoing basis."
• The number of juvenile offenders in residential placement dropped again this past year, according to a new fact sheet from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), "Juveniles in Residential Placement 1997-2008".
• The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) slammed Obama's justice budget: "more policing, prisons and punitive policies."

Thank you for this opportunity to share my story. My oldest son became involved in the juvenile justice system in April of 2009, and completed his six-month probation period in November 2009. It wasn’t the first public system he’d been involved in, but I think as a mother…it was the most heart-wrenching. Many a night I had sent prayers up for him, fearing one day he might become involved in the justice system. After all, when you got right down to it, I really had no control over my child’s actions or his decision-making in my absence.
His involvement caused a myriad of emotions within me and with the addition of another system seemingly holding the entire family hostage. I wanted to distance myself, teach him a lesson, give him tough love, send him to detention -- anything but bring him home. Overwhelmed with a pending divorce and the custody issues of a younger sibling, I didn’t need an additional challenge with yet another system.