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A recent NPR story explores the new relationship between Goldman Sachs and teens in the New York City prison system. Via the story:

In the New York City prison system, the outlook for juvenile offenders is bleak. They're falling through the cracks, being arrested repeatedly, and being re-released onto the same streets only to be picked up again.
The criminal justice system is failing these 16- and 17-year-olds, says Dora Schriro, the commissioners of the city's Department of Corrections.
"Just about half of them are going to return to jail in less than a year of their release from our system," she says. "And so that means right now one out of two is failing. They're being rearrested, charged with new crimes, and coming back."
So last year, the New York City Department of Corrections did something no other city in America has ever done — it asked for private, corporate investors. Goldman Sachs opted to invest $9.6 million in the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience program, a new curriculum that seeks to bring down the number of youth offenders going back to prison.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Georgia House Passes Juvenile Justice Reform Bill (RightOnCrime.com)
  Advocates say the changes could save taxpayers $88 million over five years by diverting the less dangerous juveniles into community-based programs instead of locking them up at a cost to taxpayers of $247 a day or $90,000 a year for each detained juvenile.
• Juvenile Justice Overhaul Coming (Walb.com)
  The Georgia state Senate unanimously approved a bill Wednesday aimed at reducing the number of repeat offenders. The bill was sponsored by Republican Rep. Wendy Willard of Sandy Springs, and was based on recommendations from the Governor.
• A Partnership for Sensible Juvenile Justice Reform in California (JJIE.org)
  California’s youth correctional system, the Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF), continues to grapple over long-standing difficulties with rehabilitative programming, youth safety, aging facilities and high operational cost. With these challenges, policymakers and juvenile justice stakeholders increasingly recognize the need for substantial reform.
• Pioneering Educator Retires After 40 Years; Reformed Education in Juvenile Justice (TCDailyPlanet.net)
  It is said that a society (or a person) shall be judged by what it (or he or she) has done for the least of its citizens. If in fact that is the case, then Larry Lucio shall be looked upon with much favor. The veteran educator, with more than 40 years of shaping young minds to his credit, has dedicated his career – and in many ways, his life – to serving students who were previously given little chance to succeed.
• Getting Tough on Juvenile Justice (TheSocietyPages.org)
  Within the last thirty years the presence of adolescent offenders tried in criminal court has become increasingly commonplace. Scholars critical of this growing phenomenon have documented that the number of youth transferred to adult (criminal) court has gradually risen since the mid-1970s.
• Robert Listenbee Jr. Assumes Leadership of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Justice.gov)
  Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs Mary Lou Leary announced that Robert L. Listenbee Jr. has assumed the role as administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). A highly respected public defender and juvenile justice system reformer, Listenbee began as OJJDP administrator Monday. Melodee Hanes, who has served as acting administrator since January 2012, will become OJJDP’s principal deputy administrator.

Starting next week, thousands of students incarcerated in juvenile detention and correctional centers around the country will participate in Words Unlocked, a poetry initiative designed to introduce young people to the transformational power of writing, give them hope, and inspire them to persevere in the terrifically hard work of changing their lives. Words Unlocked will remind us all of the talent and passion locked inside the hearts and minds of young people in the largest juvenile prison system in the world—ours.
Developed by the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings (CEEAS), Words Unlocked is an unprecedented effort to reach our nation’s most overlooked and underserved teens. Informed by original poems written by young men at the Maya Angelou Academy over many years, the initiative provides robust curricula and learning tools, all of which are available for public use: daily lesson plans and classroom materials, rubrics and assessments, teacher tips, and more.
Words Unlocked offers both a seven-day and a month-long poetry curriculum. Handouts and other materials are available in SMARTBoard, ActivBoard, MS Word, and PDF formats. In addition, CEEAS is sponsoring online teacher forums, weekly updates, and webcasts.
Words Unlocked includes a nationwide poetry competition open to any youth held in a secure facility. CEEAS will post student poetry on its blog, publish an online and iBook anthology, and provide training for schools on how to publish their own anthologies.

The Forum for Youth Investment announced March 8 the launch of a new company to help community coalitions better serve youth. The Forum, a nonprofit that advances tools to improve the opportunities and outcomes of young people, is partnering with Community Systems Group (CSG), Inc. to form Community Systems Group, LLC.
In a news release, the Forum said CSG, LLC will help coalitions diagnose the causes of specific community issues and develop plans to address them through services including:

• Developing monitoring systems to capture the activities of coalitions and analyze their impact.
• Helping to decide what data to collect (including well-being indicators) and how to ensure its quality.
• Creating evaluations to help coalitions improve their organization and processes.
• Evaluating programs and interventions that the coalitions support.

Joining these forces to improve coalitions for young people at the local level, the new company hopes to boost collective impact for youth.

By bringing together juvenile courts, probation, treatment, mental health, educators and the community, Reclaiming Futures Hardin County has accomplished a lot in two years.
According to a 2012 report, participants in Reclaiming Futures Hardin County reduced substance abuse from 100% at intake to 28% at six months in treatment. At 12 months in treatment their illegal activity dropped to 5% (29% below the national juvenile court average).
This month, Hardin County Reclaiming Futures welcomes Judicial Fellow Judge Steven D. Christopher, to their team of caring adults who are emphasizing treatment over detention.
Judge Christopher fills the vacancy recently left by retired Judge James S. Rapp, who has helped lead many successes, including a 92% graduation rate at Hardin Community School.
Reclaiming Futures Hardin County remains committed to providing:

• Individualized treatment plans based on screening and assessment 
• Evidence-based drug and alcohol education and treatment
• Supervision
• Public education
• Mentors
• Educational and vocational services
• Family support

Please listen to project director, Khrystal Wagner, interviewed March 12 on WKTN Radio:
   
Are you interested in helping your community break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime? Here’s how you can help teens in Hardin, County and everywhere: 

A new report details the early experiences of Tribal Juvenile Detention and Reentry Green Demonstration (Green Reentry) grantees in their innovative approach to community reintegration. Backed by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the programs emphasize environmental and cultural activities for justice-involved youth.
In 2009, three American Indian tribes received OJJDP Green Reentry grants: the Hualapai Indian Tribe (AZ), the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MS), and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (SD). The grants provide up to $700,000 for 4 years with the following purposes: to provide services to help detained youth reintegrate into the community, to help tribes implement green technologies and environmentally sustainable activities, and to support maintenance of tribal juvenile detention standards.
Grantees are also required to participate in an evaluation. The report constitutes the first round, documenting the implementation and impact of the programs 2.5 years in.
Across the three sites, green programming includes environmental education, horticultural instruction and hands-on practice at garden plots. All three grantees incorporate cultural components through activities such as traditional crafts and culturally relevant off-site excursions. These are rounded out by traditional youth reentry services like educational and vocational programming, mental health services, and substance abuse programs.

Reclaiming Futures works in 37 communities across the country to break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime. In about one-third of those sites, Reclaiming Futures partners with drug courts, which, according to years of research, work better than jail, prison, probation or treatment alone to significantly reduce drug use and crime.
To celebrate this, and the many lives that have been saved, please join us, and plan ahead for National Drug Court Month in May.
Here are some ideas for celebrating in your community (adapted from the National Association for Drug Court Professionals):

• Hold a commencement ceremony to recognize the accomplishments of participants.
• Schedule a meeting with your members of congress while they are home for Constituent Work Week, May 1-3 and 28-31. Have your Drug Court judge and graduate attend the meetings to educate policymakers.
• Organize a community clean up. Clean a park, street, highway or school. Invite all treatment, mental health, court, law enforcement and probation staff to join in.
• Start a local donation drive.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Legislator Wants to Change the Culture of Juvenile Justice System (NebraskaRadioNetwork.com)
  A leading state legislator says the state juvenile justice system must move from a culture of incarceration to a culture of treatment. Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, says his committee will spend a couple of days hearing legislation that aims at nothing short of the transformation of how Nebraska deals with juvenile offenders.
• In Kentucky, Juvenile Offenders’ Names Could be Shared After Adjudication (JJIE.org)
  On Monday, members of the Kentucky House passed a bill that would allow victims in juvenile court trials to discuss a case once a verdict is rendered, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. House Bill 115 swept through the House with unanimous approval earlier this week, garnering a 93-0 vote in Kentucky’s lower legislative body.
• [VIDEO] Nation Honors Center on Front Lines of Juvenile Justice (Northwestern.edu)
  The Children and Family Justice Center (CFJC) at the Northwestern University School of Law has received a $750,000 award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in recognition of the Center's exemplary advocacy for children caught up in the harsh realities of Illinois’ juvenile and criminal justice systems.
• Inquirer Editorial: Juvenile Justice that Leans Toward Mercy (Philly.com)
  The Luzerne County cash-for-kids scandal revealed the potential for tragedy when locking up juvenile defendants becomes routine. Thousands of young people were harmed by the scheme hatched by two disgraced judges, who took millions of dollars in kickbacks to place young offenders in for-profit detention centers.

One of the greatest obstacles to reforming the juvenile justice system is the fear that “going soft” on juvenile crime will pose a threat to public safety, either by setting youthful marauders loose upon a defenseless public or by removing the supposed deterrent effect of harsh and mandatory punishments. A second obstacle is the belief that any alternative to the current system of punishment and confinement will cost more, a particularly unwelcome proposition at a time when many states and communities are experiencing severe budget shortfalls.
A new report from the Justice Policy Institute, a national nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., and funded by the Tow Foundation, provides evidence contradicting the assumptions behind both objections to reform. “Juvenile Justice Reform in Connecticut: How Collaboration and Commitment Have Improved Public Safety and Outcomes for Youth” details a series of reforms in the Connecticut juvenile justice system since the 1990s, and the positive changes observed in the state since those reforms were instituted.
In the report, author Richard Mendel states that the Connecticut juvenile justice system today is “far and away more successful, more humane, and more cost-effective than it was 10 or 20 years ago” and attributes these changes largely to the state’s willingness to re-invent its system, based on “the growing body of knowledge about youth development, adolescent brain research and delinquency.”
The most significant of these changes include ending the criminalization of status offenses (e.g., truancy, running away), ceasing to treat 16- and 17-year-old offenders as adults, building a system of community alternatives to confinement and sharply reducing the number of juveniles sentenced to confinement. Connecticut also developed programs to address the specific needs of girls in confinement, to address racial disparities in the juvenile justice system, and to reduce school-based arrests and out-of-school detentions.