Roundup: "The Keeper and the Kept"; National Standard for Juvenile Recidivism; Free Webinar on Reducing No-Shows in Treatment

Juvenile Justice Reform & Related News

• "How long are we as a nation going to allow justice policy to be determined by anecdote, storytelling and worst-case scenarios?" James Bell asks in an excellent op-ed he published just before Thanksgiving in support of the renewal of the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). A week earlier, he also published another op-ed, in which he eloquently attacked juvenile life without parole.
• This week, the W. Haywood Burns Institute (which Bell directs) issued The Keeper and the Kept (see image at right), the second in a series of excellent reports on the nature of disproportionate minority confinement in the juvenile justice system and how to address it. Check it out.
• A new national standard for defining juvenile recidivism may be on the way, reports Youth Today.
  

• The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released its "Proposed Plan for Fiscal year 2010" and is inviting public comment. Follow the link for a PDF version -- note the language on p. 5 indicating that it expects to continue funding juvenile drug courts with CSAT that also use the Reclaiming Futures model. In addition, on p. 6 you'll see that the agency also plans to fund mentoring for youth in juvenile drug court. (Hat tip to Youth Today.)
• Here's a peek into one Native community's creative attempts to keep its own children from falling into crime and drug use, and out of the juvenile detention center. This five-minute video was made on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana -- to see it, click on image at right).

 
Adolescent Development and Juvenile Delinquency

• Having friends around makes teens twice as likely to engage in risky behavior, according to Laurence Steinberg, the developmental psychologist who recently won the million-dollar Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize for his work on adolescent development.
• The American Psychological Association's Office of Minority and National Affairs (OMNA) recently stopped in Seattle (a Reclaiming Futures site) on its fourth annual national tour. The goal of the program is to facilitate "multidisciplinary collaboration among a community's stakeholders with the goal that they will develop or enhance local action plans and implement them." While in Seattle, the focus was on addressing children's mental health problems earlier, to prevent youth from entering the juvenile justice system -- or to improve the services they receive while there.  (Hat tip to @policy4results.)

 
Who's Winning the War on Drugs? An Interview with Thomas McLellan, Deputy Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)

• Thomas McLellan, deputy director of the ONDCP, just gave an unusually long interview, covering "needle exchange, medical marijuana, global supply-side enforcement, prescription drug abuse, overdose prevention, and why so few people with substance abuse problems are in treatment programs."(Hat tip to @INEF.)

 
Webinars & Funding Opportunitie

• On December 8th, at 9am PST / 12 pm EST, NIATx is sponsoring a free webinar on "Reducing No-shows to the First Appointment." Don't miss it!
• SAMHSA wants to expand treatment and recovery support services for adult and juvenile offenders returning to their communities after being incarcerated for at least six months (detention counts). Follow the link for this grant opportunity-- the deadline has been extended to February 2, 2010.