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2012 Multi- System Integration Certificate Programs for Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Leaders

Those working with "crossover youth" in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems should consider applying for the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform's Certificate Programs in Multi-System Integration. These week-long programs are designed to cover a variety of issues impacting crossover youth and multi-system reform to prepare leaders to undertake a wide-range of reforms in their community.
The programs are targeted at public and private sector leaders working in the juvenile justice, child welfare, judiciary, behavioral health, education and other systems that serve crossover youth. The programs utilize a multi-systems and multi-disciplinary approach in focusing on policies, programs and practices that improve outcomes for this population. Upon completion of the week-long program, participants apply the knowledge they gain via a Capstone Project—a reform agenda they implement in their organization/ community to make a positive impact on the lives of crossover youth. In order to enhance the possibility of implementing cross systems change after returning from the program, applicants from the same jurisdiction are encouraged to apply as “mini-teams.”
Certificate Program for Public Sector Leaders
July 6-13, 2012 (applications due by March 22, 2012)
October 10-17, 2012 (priority application deadline is March 22, 2012)
Certificate Program for Private Sector Leaders
November 7-14, 2012 (applications due by July 17, 2012)
This is a great opportunity to hone your skills, network with current and future leaders in the field and improve the operation of your organization.

A Look at Youth-Related Spending in Obama's 2013 Budget

President Barack Obama unveiled his 2013 budget proposal Monday, which calls for $3.8 trillion in spending and projects a $901 billion deficit for the year. It was quickly met with resistance from Republican leadership.
“The President’s budget falls exceptionally short in many critical areas – including a lack of any substantive proposal for mandatory and entitlement spending reform,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), in a statement issued Monday.
Rogers promised to “go line by line through the President’s budget, prioritize programs, and make decisions on the appropriate investment of discretionary funds.”
Juvenile Justice
The President would fund the Office of Justice Programs at $1.7 billion in 2013, down from $2.7 billion in 2011 and $2 billion in 2012. The budget would increase spending on the juvenile justice and delinquency prevention programs at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, a division of OJP.

Formula grants to states (Title II): $70 million
2012 appropriation: $40 million
Delinquency prevention grants: $40 million
2012 appropriation: $20 million
Block grants to states (JABG): $30 million
2012 appropriation: $30 million
Mentoring programs: $58 million
2012 appropriation: $78 million
Community-Based Violence Prevention: $25 million
2012 appropriation: $8 million

Alaska's Juvenile Justice System

Alaska Public Radio recently aired a segment on Alaska's juvenile justice system. In order to better understand the system and how it works, they interviewed Brian Petrilla, a teen-bankrobber-turned-adult-probation-officer and Rob Wood, the Deputy Director of the Alaska Division of Juvenile Justice. During the interview, Brian explains how and why he encountered the juvenile justice system and how he was able to turn his life around. Rob goes on to explain how the Division of Juvenile Justice is able to:

  1. Hold youth accountable for their actions;
  2. Promote the safety and restorization of victims and their communities; and
  3. Equip young offenders and their families with the skills to help prevent future crime.  

Click here to listen.

The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative: What Is It, How Does It Work?

Bart Lubow visited Oregon last week and was kind enough to sit down with me to discuss the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Judicial Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI). 

Bart is the designer and manager of the JDAI, which is currently the nation's most widely replicated juvenile justice system reform project. As the name suggests, the JDAI is focused on reducing the unnecessary confinement of youth in the United States. On average, JDAI sites have reduced reliance on detention by over 40% with no decreases in public safety outcomes!

Should juvenile hearings be opened to news media? and more: news roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • California activists calling for changes to state’s juvenile justice system
    Juvenile Justice Information Exchange:
    Last month, California’s Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice(CJCJ) released a policy brief recommending phased juvenile justice realignment beginning later this year.
  • Judge Daley retires after helping transform juvenile court
    MyCentralJersey.com:
    New Brunswick Judge Roger Daley exited his courtroom for the last time in his 15-year tenure on the bench last week. He took off his black robe and took a seat behind an ample desk smothered with items including a “Thank You” from a grandmother of a teen, who appreciated his work to rehabilitate her grandson.
  • Bill would raise high-school dropout age to 18
    The Arizona Republic:
    State Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson, has introduced a bill that would increase the age at which high-school students could legally drop out from 16 to 18.
  • Should Orange County’s juvenile hearings be opened to news media?
    OC Register:
    Last week, the presiding judge of Los Angeles County's Juvenile Court ordered dependency proceedings there to be opened to the media, saying secrecy had allowed problems to fester, but is that the best way to protect children?
  • Budget cuts would lead to closure of several juvenile justice facilities
    The Salt Lake Tribune:
    Budget cuts could lead to the closure of several juvenile justice centers across the state, making it harder for youth offenders to be treated in their own communities or earn back the money they need to pay restitution to their victims.
  • Editorial: Well-deserved honors
    The Commercial Appeal:
    The efforts by the leadership team at Shelby County Juvenile Court to change the face of juvenile justice in Memphis and Shelby County continues to garner national recognition.
  • MacArthur Foundation, OJJDP announce private-public partnership
    Philanthropy News Digest:
    The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) have announced a private-public partnership that includes a $2 million commitment to support innovative reforms in treatment and services for youth involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

  • Drug use among florida youth drops
    Miami Herald:
    The 2011 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey showed less than 10 percent of students tried drugs other than marijuana within 30 days of the survey. Twelve percent of students reported using marijuana, a decline from 2010.

DOJ Launches Website to Improve Outcomes for At-Risk and Delinquent Girls


Good news from the Department of Justice: They've launched the National Girls Institute (NGI) website which will make it much easier for practictioners, analysts and families to access information on girls in the juvenile justice system. Founded in 2010, the NGI is a research-based training and resource clearinghouse designed to advance understanding of girls’ issues and improve program and system responses to girls in the juvenile justice system.
"We have a responsibility to educate professionals and the public about what programs work to keep girls safe and out of trouble," said OJJDP Acting Administrator Melodee Hanes in the DOJ's press release. "This website is an important step forward in our efforts to improve the lives of girls across the country."
The website's resources range from technical assistance and training materials to data and tool sets for practictioners as well as resources for parents and girls in the system.

Updating the Reclaiming Futures Model from “Completion” to “Transition”

Since its founding, Reclaiming Futures has been dedicated to helping to build a balanced and restorative juvenile justice system that holds youth accountable, but breaks the cycle of crime and drugs by providing evidence-based substance abuse treatment to the kids who need it.
Along the way, we’ve connected with 29 communities across the country and received great feedback on the power of the Reclaiming Futures model and its ability to ensure that youth have access to treatment. Our model has 6 parts:

  1. Initial screening: As soon as possible after being referred to the juvenile justice system, youth should be screened for substance abuse problems using a reputable screening tool.
  2. Initial assessment: If substance abuse is indicated, refer for service coordination.
  3. Service coordination: Intervention plans should be designed and coordinated by community teams that are family-driven, span agency boundaries and draw upon community-based resources.
  4. Initiation: Service initiation is a critical moment in intervention.
  5. Engagement: Youth and families must be effectively engaged in services.
  6. Transition: Community coordination teams should specify how much of each service plan must be completed, after which agency-based services will be gradually withdrawn, as appropriate.

National School Counseling Week

It's National School Counseling Week so let's take a moment to thank our school counselors for their efforts in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. 
From the California Department of Education:

This special week honors school counselors for the important role they play in helping students examine their talents, strengths, abilities, and interests. Counselors work in professional partnerships with teachers and support personnel to provide an educational system where students can realize their true potential. As all educators focus their efforts on improving academic achievement for all students, it is important that we recognize school counselors for their continuing efforts in reducing barriers to learning and in providing the support necessary for all students to achieve at the highest level.

Topics: No bio box, schools

The Need for Developmental Competence for Adults working with Youth

A New Mexico federal court judge recently received a complaint citing the following facts: a 13-year-old boy repeatedly belched in class. While this was amusing to his pals, the teacher found it disruptive.
Unable to get the 13-year-old to stop, the teacher called the school resource officer. The officer refused to arrest the boy for belching, but the teacher insisted. The officer arrested the boy.
The media indicted the officer. The boy, fearing the loss of his status as a nationally ranked baseball player, fell apart. The mother removed her son from the school.
This lose-lose scenario is not unusual. At Strategies for Youth (SFY), an advocacy and training organization dedicated to improving police/youth interactions, we hear of such cases two or three times a week.
For the adults involved, the result is frustration and defensiveness; for the youth involved, the result is trauma and distrust and the dangerous lesson that “might makes right.”
Some incidents are resolved in court; many receive big headlines but little follow-up in the media. There are often calls for investigation, questions about racial bias, and further entrenchment of adversarial attitudes that lead to expensive and usually unhelpful extensions of anguish for most of, if not all, the parties involved.
We can do better.

Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Launches Interactive Website

This morning, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency launched an interactive website to provide the public access to crime-related data from the state's criminal justice agencies. The site is a clearinghouse of sorts for data from various Pennsylvania agencies.
From the press release:

PACrimeStats.Info is a clearinghouse for state and county justice statistics, data trends, and PCCD-funded research and evaluations. Examples of information include general information about crime in specific communities, number of arrests, types of offenses, number of people incarcerated and paroled. The information is free and available to the public.
Data from the state Department of Corrections, the Board of Probation and Parole, the Commission on Sentencing, State Police, the Pennsylvania Justice Network, and Juvenile Court Judges' Commission are available on the site.

Obama intends to nominate ONDCP deputy director and more: news roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • Obama announces intent to nominate new deputy director for ONDCP
    Join Together:
    President Obama this past week announced his intent to nominate Michael P. Botticelli as Deputy Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy.
  • Kanawha to institute juvenile drug court
    Charleston Daily Mail:
    West Virginia’s Kanawha County aims to curb drug abuse soon after it starts by instituting a juvenile drug court program.
  • Five questions with Mike Dansereau, formerly with the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice
    Ledger Enquirer:
    In this interview, Mike Dansereau explains the differences between the adult and juvenile courts and what he would like to change in the juvenile system.
  • Iowa County sets aside $600k for juvenile justice system
    The Daily Iowan:
    Johnson County officials said they're worried minority youth are running into legal issues at a higher rate than their white peers. The county has set aside $600,000 for the Juvenile Justice and Youth Development Program and is now accepting applications for projects to use that money.
  • Richmond making fixes to juvenile detention center
    Richmond Times-Dispatch:
    Richmond officials say the city's juvenile detention center will be repaired and its staff fully retrained by April to fix the problems that led the state to put the troubled facility on probation for the second time in three years.
  • OP-ED:The true cost of high school dropouts
    New York Times:
    When the costs of investment to produce a new graduate are taken into account, there is a return of $1.45 to $3.55 for every dollar of investment, depending upon the educational intervention strategy. Under this estimate, each new graduate confers a net benefit to taxpayers of about $127,000 over the graduate’s lifetime.
  • Opinion: Police need better access to juvenile records
    Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:
    Rep. John Richards and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett make a case for allowing police officers to access juvenile probation information when they encounter young suspects on the street.
  • The price of prisons: What incarceration costs taxpayers
    Vera Institute of Justice:
    The full report provides the taxpayer cost of incarcerating a sentenced adult offender to state prison in 40 states, presents the methodology, and concludes with recommendations about steps policy makers can take to safely rein in these costs.
  • Department of Juvenile Justice representatives address YDC upheaval
    The Augusta Chronicle:
    A representative from the Department of Juvenile Justice was in Augusta for the District Five Quarterly Breakfast meeting Saturday to speak about the changes and upheaval at the Augusta Youth Development Campus.
  • Youth Fair aims to keep kids out of trouble
    NWF Daily News:
    Local juvenile assistance organizations gathered at the mail to share information with teens and concerned parents on a variety of local programs at the Okaloosa County Juvenile Justice Council’s Youth Fair.
  • Editorial: Ensuring teen offenders can’t be rehabilitated
    Washington Post:
    The Washington Post Editorial Board takes a stance against two juvenile justice reform proposals championed by Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

  • The prescription drug epidemic: a federal judge’s perspective
    Join Together:
    Pills are the new drug of choice for kids. A recent survey revealed that young people 12 and older are abusing prescription drugs at greater rates than cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine combined. Only marijuana abuse is more common. And, most troubling, every day approximately 7,000 young people abuse a prescription narcotic for the first time.

New Siblings Brain Study Sheds Light on Addiction

A new study published this week in Science, suggests that addicts have inherited abnormalities in some parts of the brain, which interfere with impulse control.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge examined 50 pairs of biological siblings (in which one sibling was addicted to cocaine or amphetamines and the other was not) against a control group of 50 healthy, drug free and non-related volunteers. First they tested the self-control levels and then performed brain scans. What they found could have big implications for the prevention and treatment of substance abuse and addiction. 
From Science:

Much to the researchers' surprise, the siblings who didn't use drugs performed as poorly on the test as the ones who did. All of the sibling pairs did worse than the healthy controls, the team reports in the 3 February issue of Science.
Brain scans also showed that both members of the sibling pairs had abnormal interconnections between parts of the brain that exert control and those involved with drive and reward. Some individual brain structures were abnormal as well; the putamen, which plays a key role in habit formation, was larger in the siblings than in control subjects, as was the medial temporal lobe, which is involved in learning and memory. Because these anomalies appeared in the siblings but not in the unrelated controls, Ersche believes the finding provides a measurable, biological basis for vulnerability to addiction.

Tonight on PBS: the Juvenile Justice System and the Need for a Culture of (high)Expectations

Tonight, PBS Newshour is taking a look inside the juvenile justice system with photographer Richard Ross. Over the past five years, Ross traveled to 30 states and interviewed over 1,000 youth in 300 juvenile detention centers. The kids ranged in age from 7 to 24 years old, because states decide how long an adolescent can legally be determined an adolescent.

While in detention, many of the kids spend 6.5 hours in school, where, as Ross explains, the teachers are prepared for at-risk and troubled students. They aren't able to ditch class and are often able to learn. 

Keeping Locked-Up Kids and their Families Connected

Arizona’s Legislature recently passed a law charging prison visitors a onetime $25 fee as a way to help close the state’s $1.6 billion budget deficit. Middle Ground Prison Reform, a prison advocacy group, challenged the law in court as a discriminatory tax, but a county judge upheld its constitutionality.
Fees like that, slapped on prisoners and their families, couldn’t be more counterintuitive. But then again, so many of our criminal justice policies are just that. Since it is mostly the poor, the desperately poor who fill U.S. prisons, the $25 fee is one more economic hardship offenders’ families have to struggle with. It becomes another bill they have to scramble to pay — that is if they can.
These kinds of charges (and Arizona isn’t the only jurisdiction trying to shift the cost of incarceration to the poor) have even graver consequences. When a family can’t pay the fee, their contact with their loved one is limited, essentially cutting an offender off from the only supports he or she has in the outside world.
Psychologists have long known how central it is for an individual to have nurturing people in his or her life in order to develop emotionally, psychologically and socially. This need for a supportive network is even more essential when we talk about the young people who are locked away from family and loved ones in our nation’s prisons and detention centers.
As anyone who has worked with kids in the penal system knows on a gut level, it is crucial to have families and other supportive community members involved in young offenders’ lives as they serve their time. Now, that commonsense intuition has been given empirical strength by studies done by such juvenile justice groups as the Vera Institute of Justice which have demonstrated that maintaining young people’s connection to families is a major factor in helping kids stay out of jail once they are released.
But it’s easy to question whether these families are really such a positive influence. After all, if they were doing such a great job what are their kids doing in jail?

Underage Drinking: Intervention Principles and Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections

Underage drinking is an issue that doesn’t get much in attention in most communities…until there is a tragedy. And even in the face of an underage drinking tragedy, most communities find it difficult to develop a comprehensive strategy that will continue to be implemented effectively once the initial fervor has passed.
For the most part, efforts to address underage drinking have been centered on reducing youth access to alcohol (i.e. “sting” operations at convenience stores). While these programs have been successful, they have not addressed the other side of the issue – the underage drinkers themselves. Typically the responsibility for implementing effective youth-centered underage drinking responses falls to the probation and diversion programs in a community. The American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) and Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) recently released “Underage Drinking: Intervention Principles and Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections,” in order to provide the field with a comprehensive guide to addressing the underage drinker.
The Underage Drinking: Intervention Principles and Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections focuses on implementing appropriate screening and assessment tools and evidence-based practices. The Guidelines are incredibly practical and user-friendly providing case studies with sample case plans that are easy to follow and understand. Complex concepts like Stages of Change are distilled to their functional application and come across as common-sense solutions.

Registration Open for NCJFCJ Webinars on Instinctive Behavior, Traumatic Events

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges is hosting two free webinars that may be of interest to practitioners and juvenile justice professionals:

  • Social Cognition: The Pros and Cons of Autopilot
    February 2, 2012 at 10:30 am PT / 1:30 pm ET
    This webinar will explore the associations between information processing and one's interactions with others and how to overcome instinctive behavior and make better decisions for children and families.
    Register here: http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/view/1532/315/
  • The Truth about Trauma and Delinquency
    March 7, 2012 at 10:30 am PT / 1:30 pm ET
    This webinar will examine how traumatic events can have a long-term impact on those who experience trauma and how these events affect their families and communities.
    Register here: www.ncjfcj.org/content/view/1531/315/

Space is very limited, so sign up today!

Topics: No bio box, Webinar

Youth Transfers to the Adult Corrections System More Likely to Reoffend

Juveniles transferred to adult corrections systems reoffend at a higher rate than those who stay in the juvenile justice system, according to a new report from the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). The report also found insufficient evidence that trying youths as adults acts as a crime deterrent.
Entitled “You’re an Adult Now,” the report published in December 2011 is based on the findings of three-dozen juvenile justice and adult corrections experts convened by the NIC in 2010 to identify challenges when youth are transferred to adult court.
Highlighted in the report, written by Jason Ziedenberg, director of juvenile justice at M+R Strategic Services, was research by the Centers for Disease Control that found youth transferred to the adult system are 34 percent more likely than youth who remain in the juvenile justice system to be re-arrested for violent or other crimes.
The safety of juveniles in adult prisons is also a serious concern, according to the report, which cites a Bureau of Justice Statistics study that found, 21 percent of the victims of inmate-on-inmate sexual violence in jails in 2005 were under the age of 18. The same study reported 13 percent were victims in 2006. However, the report notes only one percent of inmates are younger than 18.

HHS Calls for Comments on Essential Health Benefits Package under the Affordable Care Act

In December, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a bulletin outlining proposed policies that will give states more flexibility and freedom to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under the proposed policies, states will have the ability to individually determine the list of services that make up the Essential Health Benefits Package under the ACA. These will be used to determine insurance coverage in future state insurance plans. HHS is currently accepting comments from the public on the plan until Tuesday, January 31, 2012, at EssentialHealthBenefits@cms.hhs.gov
From the Bulletin:

Essential Health Benefits
The Affordable Care Act ensures Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance. To achieve this goal, the law ensures health plans offered in the individual and small group markets, both inside and outside of the Affordable Insurance Exchanges (Exchanges), offer a comprehensive package of items and services, known as “essential health benefits.” Essential health benefits must include items and services within at least the following 10 categories:

  • Ambulatory patient services
  • Emergency services
  • Hospitalization
  • Maternity and newborn care
  • Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment
  • Prescription drugs
  • Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
  • Laboratory services
  • Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management, and
  • Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

Youth sex offenders must register for 25 years and more: news roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • 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.

New Teen Substance Abuse PSAs Focus on Parents

The Partnership at Drugfree.org recently teamed up with Energy BBDO to release a new set of PSAs warning about the harmful effects of drug and alcohol abuse by adolescents. Unlike previous campaigns, these videos focus specifically on parents' behavior and call on parents to intervene instead of enabling their child's destructive behaviors.
"Denial"

 

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