Roundup: Judges' Vote Could Reduce Overuse of Detention; DOJ Grants for Tribal Youth; SAMHSA Funds for Knowledge Dissemination; Pigeons as an Anti-Gang Strategy

• A former L.A. gang member has found an unusual way to help young teens avoid juvenile crime and gangs: pigeons. Click on the video above to see the CBS story, or here for the print version. (Hat tip to Cheryl Reed.)

 
Juvenile Justice News

• The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) has voted to endorse the elimination of the "Valid Court Order exception." Juvenile justice reformers have tied these exceptions to the overuse of detention for teens who commit status offenses (running away, skipping school, violating curfew). For background, see this brief 2008 summary of the issue, and Monday's article from Youth Today.
• Schools' zero tolerance policies feed the school-to-prison pipeline, so it's encouraging to see in The New York Times that these policies are being seriously questioned by scholars and educators -- and have now led to a legal challenge in North Carolina. 

• The New York Times also reported that state prisons are holding fewer prisoners. While the report does not by and large deal with juveniles (only Indiana's prisoner counts appear to include juveniles) this might signal an important shift because it's the first such drop in 38 years. However, it's not a large drop (about four-tenths of one percent); federal prison populations grew by 3.4 percent in the same time period; and the report doesn't address local jails. Still, expert observers believe that the drop isn't primarily due to budget cuts, as might be expected, but to "recent efforts to keep parolees out of prison and reduce prison time for nonviolent offenders."

 
Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment - Research and Updates

• A recent survey by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America found that teen use of drugs and alcohol has risen significantly, and parents aren't addressing it.  A key finding from the study: "rather dramatic year-over-year spikes in past-month alcohol use (up 11 percent) and past-year use of marijuana (up 19 percent) and ecstasy (up 67 percent) among U.S. students in grades 9-12." 
• A study published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment last September, "Racial/ethnic disparities in the patterns of co-occurring mental health problems in adolescents in substance abuse treatment," used data from 9,030 youth, including youth at Reclaiming Futures sites. The study verified that such co-occurring disorders did vary by race and ethnicity, underscoring the need for individualized treatment.
• You can find detailed information on the substance abuse and mental health needs of youth incarcerated in state prisons and local jails beginning on page 32 of Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and America's Prison Population, a February 2010 report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. (Hat tip to the ATTC Network and Mac Prichard.)

 
Funding Related to Youth in the Juvenile Justice System and Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is offering diverse funding opportunities for youth in the juvenile justice system through its Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation: 
• preventing and controlling delinquency and improving the juvenile justice system (OJJDP—Tribal Youth Program)
• enhancing accountability for delinquent behavior (OJJDP—Tribal Juvenile Accountability Discretionary Program)
• developing new demonstration projects on violence prevention and rehabilitation (OJJDP—Tribal Youth Program)

The application deadline is May 13, 2010. You can also visit the DOJ's Tribal Justice & Safety page.

• Grants are available from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to partially support knowledge dissemination conferences through its Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Rolling deadlines March 31st and September 30th, 2010. (Hat tip to the ATTC Network.)

 
Resources for Juvenile Justice, Adolescent Substance Abuse, and Positive Youth Development

• Interested in starting an anti-violence initiative in your community? Then check out "Reaching Through the Cracks: A Guide to Implementing the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership. It's based on seven years of experience implementing an intensive services and supervision program in Philadelphia for youth at greatest risk of killing or being killed. (Hat tip to the National Reentry Resource Center.)
• The results of a 2005 survey of assessments used in teen substance abuse treatment just appeared in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.
• Youth-to-Youth International is hosting three conferences across the country this summer to provide substance abuse prevention and leadership training for teens. Youth registration costs $399, but youth selected to attend as staff may go at a "reduced rate." Adults selected to attend as staff attend free. Deadlines differ depending on the conference; the earliest is April 9, 2010. (Hat tip to Christa Myers, project director of Reclaiming Futures Hocking County.)