Blog: Public Policy

• After two decades of juvenile justice reform, the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Reform Initiative (JDAI) has released a report documenting its impressive progress. (I'll link to the report when I get hold of it.)

• Children and Juvenile Justice: Proposals for Improvements is the title of a new report from the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights. (If that interests you, you might also want to see this 2007 summary of trends in juvenile justice systems across 15 countries.)
• 13 Myths and Facts about Drug Abuse and Treatment - an excellent short document from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Drastic cuts to the juvenile justice system in South Carolina are reversing significant gains made by reforms there, according to a New York Times story (see left for a still from the accompanying video, "Beyond the Fence.")
The Center for the Study of Social Policy's blog calls cuts to juvenile justice programs like these "shortsighted," because they avoid future costs and keep the community safer.
(UPDATE: Interestingly enough, budget woes seem to be driving states to adopt alternatives to incarceration -- including drug courts -- in the adult justice system.)
But what do you think? Leave a comment. 

Here's a question that may not have crossed your mind lately: who's leading the charge on juvenile justice reform in Georgia? You'll be glad to know that someone is: UNICEF. Check out the video clip for a peek into its work abroad. 

Anyone who's serious about juvenile justice reform wants to address disproportionate minority contact (DMC), and several major foundation efforts have been chipping away at the problem for over a decade.
Now, TimeBanks USA hopes to bring the "practice of sending minority youth to confinement to a screeching halt." 

• Charging families for detained children? That's what San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing, along with a host of other fees, to balance the city budget. Although the fees would be waived for foster children and families making 30% or less of the local median income, the proposal has come under serious fire from the City Supervisor.
• Three youth in the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice facility have swine flu, and 18 other youth and two staff members are showing flu symptoms as well. Does your facility have a plan for what it would do in a similar situation? June 21st UPDATE: six youth at a Louisiana juvenile justice facility have come down with the flu. It's not clear if they're suffering from swine flu, but officials took the precaution of suspending weekend visitation to prevent the flu from spreading.

New Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske (i.e., director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)) was interviewed on NPR earlier this week when he visited an adult drug court in California.
In the interview, you can hear him talk about the value of drug courts as a crime prevention tool; the Administration's plans to double funding for them; and his dislike of the term "war on drugs."
Juvenile drug courts weren't specifically mentioned; it's unclear if the proposed funding increases would be proportionate.

A few weeks ago, America's Invisible Children: Latino Youth and the Failure of Justice was issued by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ). I already posted about it, but now that I've had a chance to scan it, I thought a few of pieces of information in it were worth calling attention to. (It's an unusually lucid and readable document, and well worth reviewing on your own.)

A few weeks back, I posted a "parents' bill of rights" from Texas, so it's only fitting that I also post a strength-based bill of rights for youth in the justice system (see p. 3 of the linked document) created by Laura Nissen, the National Director of Reclaiming Futures.
Now there's a model bill of rights for children in the justice system from the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, and a list of states introducing it as legislation this year: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.