By Lori Howell, January 27 2012
Juvenile Justice Reform
- Federal ruling: Youth sex offenders must report for 25 years
San Francisco Chronicle:
Juveniles convicted of serious sex crimes in federal court can be required to register as sex offenders for at least 25 years, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
- DOJ, MacArthur Foundation provide $2 million for juvenile justice reform
OJJDP and the MacArthur Foundation each will provide a total of $1 million over two years to four organizations who will in turn offer states and local governments training and technical assistance to improve mental health services for youth, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system and better coordinate treatment and services for youth involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.
- Juvenile violence in Baltimore continues to decline
Baltimore Sun:
Violence against juveniles has declined significantly in Baltimore in recent years as juvenile arrests have dropped and student graduations increased — a trend that the city schools chief said stills lags behind perceptions of the city's young people.
- Police to get access to juvenile probation records
Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:
Milwaukee police officers will now be able to quickly find out if a juvenile they are stopping is on probation under a new agreement between the city and Milwaukee County.
- Paying a price, long after the crime
New York Times:
In 2010, the Chicago Public Schools declined to hire Darrell Langdon for a job as a boiler-room engineer, because he had been convicted of possessing a half-gram of cocaine in 1985, a felony for which he received probation. It didn’t matter that Mr. Langdon, a single parent of two sons, had been clean since 1988 and hadn’t run into further trouble with the law. Only after The Chicago Tribune wrote about his case did the school system reverse its decision and offer him the job.
- Local Boys & Girls Clubs receive $600k to help juvenile offenders
Ventura County Star:
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme aims to reduce repeat crimes among juvenile offenders in Ventura County by merging two pilot projects into a new program. The nonprofit received $609,232 from the Department of Justice to create RAMP, a Reentry Aftercare Mentoring Program, which will provide mentoring to incarcerated teens in the group’s Juvenile Justice Facility program so they are prepared to reenter the community and avoid committing further crimes.
- Kansas juvenile inmates lack vocational training
The Topeka Capital-Journal:
A joint legislative committee recommended expansion of vocational training for juveniles in state custody and action to prevent mixing violent and nonviolent offenders in community residential facilities.
- Black males need school to stay out of jail
Hartford Courant:
A few years ago, the national dropout rate for African American males was 70 percent. Today, the high school graduation rate for black boys is about 50 percent. Stan Simpson says, "It is no urban legend that many for-profit prison systems base their population projections on third- and fourth-grade reading scores."
Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment
- Bath salts linked to child abuse
Midland Daily News:
The latest Kids Count in Michigan report shows a strong link between the number of child abuse and neglect cases and poverty, and a local judge points to another local factor not uncovered in the study -- the designer drug called bath salts.
- Michigan legislature looks to merge substance abuse and mental health services
Ann Arbor News:
Two House bills (HB 4862& HB 4863) that would merge substance abuse and mental health services under one agency has some critics worried that treatment for addiction could become too cookie-cutter.
- OP-ED: Provide safe and rehabilitative confinement for youth in Ohio
Mansfield News Journal:
Increasingly, experts believe delinquent youth incarceration is harmful, ineffective and wasteful, that it has the exact opposite impact of its intent: promoting public safety.
- Study finds targeting multiple areas of young people’s lives can help prevent drug use
Drugfree.org Programs that target multiple areas of young people’s lives, including family, peers, community and school, may help prevent drug use and risky sexual behavior, according to a new study.
- Drug companies developing more powerful version of hydrocodone
Drugfree.org Four drug companies are developing a more powerful version of the painkiller hydrocodone. One group dedicated to fighting prescription drug abuse is concerned this new drug has a large potential for abuse.
Events
- National conference on juvenile and family law
Hosted by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, these seminars and plenaries will address such topics as practical strategies for collaborations in juvenile and family law, ethics for juvenile court judges, addressing teen dating violence and domestic violence, evidence-based practice in juvenile drug courts, truancy, the adolescent brain, and more.
When: March 21-24,2012
Where: Las Vegas, NV
- Youth Summit: Working together to support New York’s youth
Be a part of the conversation on cross-system collaborations with families,young persons, multiple government agencies, policy makers, legislators, community leaders, and program administrators and direct care staff from programs offering adolescent substance use disorder services.
When: March 22-23, 2012
Where: Albany, New York
- Blueprints for Violence Prevention
This event is geared toward juvenile justice professionals and will disseminate science-based information on effective youth violence, delinquency, and drug prevention programs. Program experts will discuss evidence-based prevention programs and will provide education, guidance, and tools for individuals, communities, and agencies interested in implementation success, sustainability, policy, and effective leadership. Blueprints is sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation
When: April 11-13, 2012
Where: San Antonio, Tex.
Lori Howell is a Senior Associate at Prichard Communications. She is a seasoned public affairs practitioner with a background in public policy, fundraising, and education. Lori helps clients with online editorial services, media relations, and publications. Before joining Prichard Communications, she served as chief of staff for Greg Macpherson, a former Oregon state legislator, an account executive for the Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit educational testing consortium, and once taught English in Choshi, Japan.
Updated: February 08 2018