By Benjamin Chambers, August 07 2009
After two decades of juvenile justice reform, the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Reform Initiative (JDAI) has released a report documenting its impressive progress. (I'll link to the report when I get hold of it.)
- The Baltimore Sun, reacting to a horrible recent incident where a youth on community detention fired shots that accidentally killed a 5-year-old girl, says Baltimore's juvenile justice system needs an overhaul to deal with its repeat violent offenders. At the same time, a restorative justice program in the city is having excellent results in reducing recidivism. Like many other restorative justice "conferencing" programs, it doesn't take on violent crimes, but staff think they could be successful with them.
- Training: "Family Involved Substance Abuse Treatment," an accredited, self-paced home-study course that helps you blend family therapy with substance abuse treatment. (Hat tip to the ATTC Network.)
- Check out the National Cristina Foundation if you need "computer technology and solutions" for at-risk students or teens in the justice system.
- Want to show policymakers that it makes good financial sense to fund alcohol and drug prevention? The Substance Abuse and Mental health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed a cost-benefit analysis tool to help.
- Rhode Island KIDS COUNT issued a brief on the state's juvenile justice system, along with recommendations.
- A very sad case history in the Washington Post points up the service system's chronic difficulty in effectively treating teens with dual diagnoses.
- In an extraordinary move, federal judges ordered California to cut its prison population by 40,000 inmates within two years because of overcrowding. As far as I can tell, the order doesn't apply to juveniles, but recently the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice called for the closure of California's state-run juvenile facilities, recommending they be sent to county-level facilities instead.
- The Pennsylvania judges who pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the so-called "kids for cash" scandal are being called upon by a local paper to apologize; buried in the paper's editorial, I learned that the state supreme court has reversed its earlier decision to allow the destruction of thousands of juvenile records that could be key to the case and to the county's efforts at juvenile justice reform.
Topics: Juvenile Justice Reform, News, No bio box, Public Policy, Resources
Updated: February 08 2018