4 Things to Understand About Youth, Mental Health & Juvenile Justice; News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Study: Ohio Diversion Program Decreases Delinquency (JJIE)
  Most offenders ages 10 to 18 with mental health and behavioral problems who were diverted from detention centers to a treatment program in Ohio over an eight-year period showed decreases in future delinquency, a study shows.

• Reducing Youth Incarceration in Rhode Island (Providence Journal)
  A new Justice Policy Institute report, Sticker Shock: Calculating the Full Price Tag of Youth Incarceration, shows that Rhode Island is one of 33 states that pay more than $100,000 to incarcerate a single young person for a year. In fiscal year 2013, the total was $186,000, about 13 times what it costs to educate a student for one year in Rhode Island.

• NCJFCJ Receives $10.3 Million to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families Nationwide in 2014 (Nevada Business)
  The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) received a total of $10.3 million, a 29 percent increase from the previous year, in new and continuing grants during the fiscal year ending in 2014.

• Acting Juvenile Justice Director Picked for Post (Charlotte Observer)
  Haley spokeswoman Chaney Adams said Thursday that Sylvia Murray will head the agency that oversees about 140 prisoners and another 8,500 juveniles in other disciplinary programs. It has some 1,400 employees.

Jobs, Grants, Events and Webinars

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Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Mental Health

• 4 Things to Understand About Youth, Mental Health & Juvenile Justice (Forbes)
  Currently, lack of capacity and resources contributes to high recidivism rates and skyrocketing taxpayer burden. As we enter a new year, with a new Congress, it is important as a country that we think about the mental, physical and financial health of our country’s most vulnerable individuals: children. Here are four things to understand about our juvenile justice system, and our children that live within the system.

• Take Steps to Prevent Substance Abuse (Democrat & Chronicle)
  The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that for every dollar invested in prevention, a savings of up to $10 in treatment can be seen. When substance abuse can be prevented altogether, however, the savings in human potential are exponential.

• More Adults are Using Weed in the States that Legalized, But Teen Use is Flat (Washington Post)
  The national-level data from this study, released back in September, showed that drug and alcohol use rates among all Americans is essentially flat, while teen use is actually trending downward.