Roundup: Where I'd Put My Money in Juvenile Justice

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment - Related News

• 12 Overarching Principles for Working with People with Co-Occurring Disorders - Hat tip to Paul Savery for this 2006 document from the Co-Occurring  Center for Excellent (COCE) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Incidentally, the COCE plans to launch a new website soon with updated resources. I'll keep you posted. 
• NIH Approves Planning Process to Create a Federal Institute on Addictions and Substance Abuse - In September, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) advisory panel recommended that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institutes on Alcoholism and Aclohol Abuse (NIAAA) be merged, along with other NIH addiction research efforts, into a new addictions institute. The proposal just cleared another hurdle: the NIH director approved a planning process for the reorganization. Nothing will happen quickly, though, as any reorgnization would have to be approved by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and then by Congress.

• Asking Patients about Alcohol and Drug Use: How You Ask Matters - A Massachusetts program improved abstinence rates of patients indulging in risky substance use from 6% to about 33% by using an Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) protocol (follow link and scroll to second bullet). But a key part of making it work is asking questions in the right way -- which also applies to youth on probation. 

Positive Youth Development

• Founder of Pongo Teen Writing Chosen as Microsoft Integral Fellow - Richard Gold, a former Microsoft employee, founded Pongo Teen Writing to help teens in the juvenile justice system and in psychiatric settings. His organization won $25,000 and significant support from the Microsoft Alumni Foundation and his fellow alumni for the next year. Congratulations!
• Is it Time to "Ban the Box" Where Employers Ask if Applicants Have a Criminal Record? - Earlier this week, a guest posted on "The Power of Second Chances: Employment After Treatment," which I followed with "Job Coaching At-Risk Teens." But youth in the justice system who want to work still have a big problem: job applications that ask about your criminal record. Advocates for "banning the box" say that community safety would be improved if ex-offenders weren't automatically blocked from productive work because of their criminal records. (H/t Faces &Voices of Recovery newsletter.) (Related post: Here are some proven strategies for improving education and employment opportunities for boys in the juvenile justice system.)

Juvenile Justice System - Related News

• States Respond to the Supreme Court's Ruling on Juvenile Life Without Parole - Youth Today examines early indications from Florida and California to see whether states will honor the spirit of the 2010 ruling prohibiting life without parole for juveniles who did not commit homicide, or merely resentence youth in ways that effectively imprison them for life. 
• Juvenile Justice: Where I'd Put My Money - a youth advocate makes a passionate, reasoned, and detailed case for making continued federal investments in youth services, rather than making drastic budget cuts that will send more youth to juvenile prison.
• Connecticut's Just.Start Website Tackles Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) - "So often states conduct studies, find DMC and yet can’t convince anyone DMC is real," says Christine Rapillo, Esq., a member of the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC) in an interview published in the Coalition for Juvenile Justice November/December 2010  newsletter. "The purpose of the Web site and public campaign is to raise public awareness. Our goal is to explain what DMC is and what we’re doing to eliminate it in an easy to understand, non-jargon, non-judgmental way." Check it out - it's a great model.  
• The 'Black Male Crisis': Why We Mean So Well but Do So Badly - A powerful, provocative blog post from Karen Pittman of the Forum for Youth Investment on new data from the Council of the Great City Schools "that black males have fewer opportunities and perform lower than their peers on nearly every indicator, from infant mortality through to career prospects." Despite solid evidence that black males are in crisis, Pittman argues that Americans in general do not see it as a crisis, because they are not "embarrassed by these data." She says that youth advocates would do better to present data in the context of all children, and with reference to cost-effective solutions. Definitely worth reading -- and a great next step would be to sign up for the webinar below.  

Events

• Ready by 21 Webinar - Building Broader Partnerships 101 -The Forum for Youth Investment offers this webinar on November 30, 2010, 12 pm PST / 3 pm EST to help states and local communities make their partnerships more effective at making change. Register today!
• 2011 Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Certificate Program for Public Sector Leaders - Save the date: The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University will be holding its multi-system integration certificate program July 15-21, 2011, in Washington, D.C. Follow the link to learn more.