What Role Does Race Play in Juvenile Justice? News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Juvenile Justice Reform Pays, in Dollars and Sense (Ledger-Enquirer)
  One eye-popping number: The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice says the state can save more than $90,000 for every child -- every child -- that doesn't have to be placed in a juvenile detention center. So said political, law enforcement and judicial officials in a town-hall panel discussion at the Augusta Library Headquarters.
• New Coalition to Focus on Juvenile Justice in Jacksonville (Jacksonville.com)
  More than two dozen Northeast Florida elected officials, churches, advocacy groups and policy organizations are joining forces to put a stop to the criminalization of first-time juvenile offenders accused of committing misdemeanors.
• Georgia Closing Juvenile Prison With Nation’s Highest Rate of Sexual Victimization (JJIE.org)
  A Georgia youth prison, recently found by a federal study to have the highest rate in the nation of sexual victimization of incarcerated youth, will close at the end of the year, the state Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) announced Monday.
• What Role Does Race Play in Juvenile Justice? Youth Forum Tackles Subject (Middletown-CT.Patch.com)
  The Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, Middletown Mayor Dan Drew and young people will explore solutions to racial disparity to promote equality for Connecticut young people in the system.

Jobs, Grants, Events and Webinars

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Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Mental Health

• Teen Pitfall: Stress Can Lead to Depression, Drug Use (WCPO.com)
  What happens when a teen becomes overloaded by stress? Is it more than just a bad day at school? "Stress can be compared with the pressure that a sculptor places on a piece of marble: the right pressure and it becomes a masterpiece, but too much pressure and the marble breaks into pieces," said researchers at the National Science Foundation .
• Making It Through The Night (HuffingtonPost.com)
  "Every day, at some point during that drive, I have two thoughts: 'Please don't let any of the kids get hurt today' and 'Please don't let any of the kids do something horrible today.' Every day before I see the 150 kids who make up the public alternative school we started two years ago, I have to worry about whether or not they all made it through the night in one piece."
• Teen Girls who Share Their Melancholia Online Reshaping What it Means to be Depressed (PBS.org)
  Among the more than 140 million blogs on Tumblr, young girls are trending tags like "self-harm," "depression" and "sadness." In a feature article in The Atlantic, girls in these social media communities post black and white photos of themselves staring off into space with quotes like "I want to die a lovely death."

David Backes writes the Friday news roundup for Reclaiming Futures and contributes articles about juvenile justice reform and adolescent substance abuse treatment to ReclaimingFutures.org. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Santa Clara University. David works as an account executive for Prichard Communications.