By Benjamin Chambers, December 06 2010
From Teen Carjacker to Poetry Professor - R. Dwayne Betts was imprisoned for nine years at age 16 for participating in a carjacking. Now 30 -- and a free man -- he's published a memoir, is working on a nonfiction book on the effects of incarceration, and is a professor of poetry at the University of Maryland. He's also a spokesman for the Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ). Follow the link for a fascinating interview with him conducted by a blogger at The New Yorker magazine, and see this related post for information about how poetry can be therapeutic to teens in the juvenile justice system.
- New County-Level Tool on California Sentencing Policy. The California Sentencing Institute has created an interactive county-by-county guide to sentencing and imprisonment of adults and juveniles. Click on any county to find "numbers and population-adjusted rates of arrest and imprisonment of adults and juveniles by offense, race, sex, age, and cost, along with comparison to state averages." Have you got something like this in your state? Let us know! (Hat tip to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.)
- Continuing Care: Telephone Monitoring. The Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network continues its excellent series on best practices in continuing care with this article on telephone monitoring. You'll learn how to prepare clients for transitioning to the telephone and how to conduct the call step by step; there's even an adherence checklist.
- Call for Proposals - National Conference on Substance Abuse, Child Welfare and the Courts. This conference, put on by Children and Family Futures and co-sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Servcies Administration (SAMHSA), will be held September 14-16, 2011 in National Harbor, MD. Registration to attend will open May 1, 2011, but if you want to present, you'll want to hurry, as the deadline for proposals is January 14, 2011. They're looking to address "clinical, programmatic, research and policy issues and showcase models focused on children, youth and families involved in the child welfare and justice systems who are affected by substance use disorders." (Hat tip to Christina Weeter.)
- Earl E. Appleby Retires?! - If you haven't been subscribing long to JUVJUST, the Office of Justice Program's email newsletter on juvenile justice, you may not know the man behind it: Earl E. Appleby. I first began subscribing about eight years ago, and for most of that time, his name was on the email I got. I didn't know him personally, but I thought of him fondly and was always glad to get his email. He was my friend in high places, the guy with the inside line on the latest news in the field. His name no longer appears on the email notifications for JUVJUST, but his hand guided it until December 2nd, when, it appears, he officially retired, after a long, illustrious career. On behalf of Reclaiming Futures, I wish him well.
- Job Opening: Executive Director of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). Hurry! Application deadline is December 31, 2010.
- New from OJJDP - More Info on Youth in Residential Placement. The first national survey of youth in residential placement has yielded a fourth publication from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), titled, "Youth's Characteristics and Backgrounds: Findings from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement." Follow the link for more info.
Topics: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, Juvenile Justice Reform, No bio box, Positive Youth Development
Updated: February 08 2018