Troubled Teens Could Benefit from Online Access to Health Records and More; News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Why So Many Hawaiian, Samoan And Filipino Youth In Justice System? (Honolulu Civil Beat)
  Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and mixed-race youth are disproportionately represented in Hawaii's juvenile justice system, a recent study concludes. The statewide analysis found that Hawaiian, Samoan and Filipino youth "fare worse than Caucasians at the stages of arrest," a pattern that continues as the young people move through detention, probation and protective services.
• More Juvenile Offenders Put Through Diversion Programs, Less Locked Up (CourierPostOnline.com)
  Fewer young people in New Jersey are being locked up for offenses they commit, so states a report issued Wednesday by Newak-based children’s advocacy group Advocates for Children of New Jersey. The “Kids Count Special Report: Juvenile Justice” states that last year, the state incarcerated nearly 7,000 fewer juveniles than it did prior to the start of an initiative to bring down the what ACNJ deemed to be over use of juvenile detention.
• Minorities Prevalent in Juvenile Justice System (KIMT.com)
  In Minnesota, juveniles who are minorities are three times as likely to be arrested than young people who are white. A report from the Minnesota Office of Justice Programs compares rates of minority youth in the state's juvenile justice system to those of white youth. The report finds that youth of color are more than one and a half times more likely to be securely detained than white youth.
• 'A Door to Anywhere': Juvenile Justice Center Aims to Get Kids on the Right Track (TheDailyCourier.com)
  "When the juvenile court system started in Chicago 110 years ago, they realized that there's hope for children," Arizona Supreme Court Justice Robert Brutinel told an audience of 300 at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday for the new Yavapai County Juvenile Justice Center in Prescott.
• Study Reveals Disparities in Juvenile Justice (New America Media)
  Youth-of-color are disparately represented at all stages of justice-system processing in Minnesota, according to a report from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Office of Justice Programs. The OJP report compares rates of involvement of youth-of-color at key stages of Minnesota’s juvenile justice system to those of white youth.

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Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Troubled Teens Could Benefit from Online Access to Health Records (MedicalXpress.com)
  Online health records could be surprisingly useful for at-risk teenagers who cycle through the juvenile justice system. A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center found that these young people have high rates of Internet use and an unexpectedly favorable attitude toward accessing their health records online.
• More and More Babies are Being Born with Addictions (Star-Telegram.com)
  A national study published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the number of babies treated for drug withdrawal after birth nearly tripled between 2000 and 2009, rising from 1.2 out of every 1,000 babies born in a hospital to 3.4 out of every 1,000 babies.
   

David Backes writes the Friday news roundup for Reclaiming Futures and contributes articles about juvenile justice reform and adolescent substance abuse treatment to ReclaimingFutures.org. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Santa Clara University. David works as an account executive for Prichard Communications.