Juvenile Justice Reform | Adolescent Substance Abuse

July 28, 2010
Moms Want Justice: Meaningful Family Partnerships in Juvenile Justice Reform
by BENJAMIN CHAMBERS

Want to partner with families on juvenile justice reform?

Been there, done that, but still struggling?

Do yourself a favor and check out "An Advocate's Guide to Meaningful Family Partnerships: Tips from the Field," from the National Juvenile Justice Network.

Based on interviews with 26 advocacy organizations and in-depth interviews with eight juvenile justice advocacy groups (both family-led and non-family-led), the guide is a great primer / refresher on what works when partnering with families.

You'll find reminders about leveling the playing field so that professional advocates and family advocates can both contribute; the need to be frank about and work to address underrepresentation of people of color on the staff of advocacy organizations; and ways to help advocates celebrate their wins even when the legislative process falls short of their ultimate goals.

What's one of the biggest barriers to recruiting family members as advocates for juvenile justice reform? Often, they begin their journey as advocates because they care intensely about their own child, sibling, or relation; they're less interested in fighting for changes to the system on behalf of other people's children.

Here, the NJJN guide once again provides useful tips. None of the solutions are likely to surprise you, but they're often overlooked in my experience, especially when it comes to juvenile justice agencies seeking to give families voice.

In addition, you'll also find capsule examples of organizations that have achieved success with recruiting family members, building their expertise, and benefiting from the ability of family advocates to push reform from outside the system:

Books not Bars;
Citizens for Second Chances (newsletters);
The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana; and
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children.

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July 27, 2010
How to Help Families of Teens with Drug Problems - A CRAFT Training
by BENJAMIN CHAMBERS

Here's the problem with adolescent substance abuse treatment: young people who are using want nothing to do with it.

How can you help? You can help their family members get them into treatment.

Sound simple? We all know it's anything but. So here's your chance to learn a clincally-backed protocol for helping families of youth (and adults) with serious drug and alcohol issues. According to studies done so far, family members who participate the Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) get between 64% and 86% of their loved ones into treatment -- and they're more likely to stay engaged once they get there.

Now's your chance to learn CRAFT:

Chestnut Health Systems is hosting a CRAFT training session with its creator, Dr. Robert J. Meyers (who was also involved in creation of the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach, which is aimed at teens). He'll be leading the CRAFT training October 4-6, 2010, at Chestnut Health Systems in Bloomington-Normal, IL; registration instructions are here. Questions? Email Kelli Wright at Chestnut.

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July 26, 2010
2010 Recovery Month Toolkit is Now Available!
by SAMHSA RECOVERY MONTH

adolescent-substance-abuse-treatment-recovery_SAMHSA-Recovery-Month-2010-cover Want to plan an event for teens celebrating and promoting recovery from substance abuse? Want ideas from others?

SAMHSA recently released a toolkit to help individuals and organizations plan recovery events in conjunction with Recovery Month 2010, and to provide you with tools and educational materials to distribute in your community.

As we discussed in a previous post, 2010 marks Recovery Month’s 21^st year, and we are celebrating with the theme “Join the Voices of Recovery: Now More Than Ever!” The theme emphasizes how high levels of stress may contribute to or exacerbate alcohol or drug use, which can lead to a substance use disorder or relapse. The toolkit also raises awareness about the increasing level of stress in society and the impact it has on addiction.

The toolkit, available online and in hard copy, is divided into three sections: media outreach, targeted outreach, and resources. The media outreach section includes tips and template documents to help plan and promote your events. The targeted outreach section provides details about substance use disorders that are tailored for specific audiences. The resource section shares information to help you prepare for events and suggests organizations in which you could consider partnering.

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July 22, 2010
Juvenile Indigent Defense System Failing Kids It's Meant to Protect - Weekly Roundup
by BENJAMIN CHAMBERS

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment - News and Research Updates

How the confidentiality of patients who obtain substance abuse treatment will be handled under health reform (and electronic health records in particular) continues to be the focus of controversy, according to Join Together. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has issued a document covering "frequently-asked questions," and will hold a stakeholders' meeting on August 4th to provide more clarification. Last February, I posted that some health reform advocates want to do away with federal confidentiality regulations under 42 CFR in favor of relevant HIPAA regulations. They say they're concerned that the burden of complying will discourage mainstream doctors from screening patients and providing brief intervention for alcohol and drug issues.

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July 21, 2010
Supporting Teens in Treatment and Beyond: Our Community Summit and Lessons Learned
by THE HONORABLE BETTINA BORDERS

community-involvement_people-working-at-tables I’m sure you already know the Reclaiming Futures mantra for teens in the justice system who have alcohol and drug issues: “More treatment, better treatment, and beyond treatment!”

The hardest part of the mantra to bring to fruition is the third part of it – how can we help support youth in recovery once they’re done with treatment (or even the juvenile court)? Changing behavior for the long-term isn’t easy, and youth need positive activities and supportive adults to help them stay sober and crime-free.

To begin to tackle our own “beyond treatment” plan, Bristol County Reclaiming Futures recently hosted a “sustainability summit.” Our goal was to initiate conversation about how to better meet the needs of at-risk and justice-involved youth with substance abuse issues, and I’m happy to report that the project generated a lot of positive energy and even made the news! We generated a number of strategies to move forward, and a task force comprised of summit attendees and other interested parties soon begin working on implementing them. (Special thanks to Dan Merrigan of Boston University, our Reclaiming Futures coach, for facilitating the work group project.)

Some highlights:

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July 19, 2010
Transferring Juveniles to Adult Court: New Research on What Works
by EDWARD P. MULVEY PH.D. AND CAROL A. SCHUBERT M.P.H.

[The authors provided a summary of the landmark Pathways to Desistance study on serious juvenile offenders here last April. - Ed.]

The option to transfer an adolescent offender to adult court has been a feature of the juvenile court since its inception. There has always been a recognition that certain, usually older, adolescents may commit very serious offenses for which the juvenile system cannot provide a substantial enough penalty to satisfy the public’s demand for punishment (Zimring, 2000). There may also be adolescent offenders who, despite the best efforts of the juvenile system, continue to offend, and for whom more of the same services seem to serve little purpose (Bishop and Frazier, 2000). In policy reforms during the 1990s and 2000s, nearly every state in the nation toughened laws governing criminal prosecution and sentencing of juveniles (Griffin, 2003). Expansions of the transfer statutes have made it easier for a broader group of adolescents to be processed by the adult court.

Most research done to date regarding juvenile transfer has focused primarily on the negative effects of current policies, with little consistent and rigorous work on the variation among the adolescents transferred to adult court and their later adjustment in the community. Using a sample of 193 transferred youth from Arizona enrolled in the Pathways to Desistance study, we consider how certain individual characteristics are related to four post-release outcomes (antisocial activity, re-arrest, re-institutionalization, and gainful activity). We find considerable variability in outcomes, with adjustment significantly and consistently related to certain legal and risk-need factors (Schubert et al. in press).

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July 19, 2010
Improving Adolescent Treatment - Tools & Resources from NIATx
by KIM JOHNSON

adolescent-substance-treatment_NIATx-logo Making your agency more effective at serving teens who need substance abuse treatment or mental health treatment (or both) is hard work. And even though in the past I’ve posted some of the resources here that we have to help you, such as our free e-learning course on process improvement or our archived webinar on how to increase collections from insurance companies, you might not realize how many other things are available on the recently-redesigned NIATx web site.

Have a question about implementing the NIATx model to improve access and retention in treatment? Head over to the NIATx Support Forum and browse the instant help FAQ for ideas and resources to address some common problems. Or, post a question to the forum and get help from over 4,000 provider participants, 100 coaches, and university staff.

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July 16, 2010
Roundup: Your Feedback Wanted on Federal Juvenile Justice Policy
by BENJAMIN CHAMBERS

Juvenile Justice Reform and Related News

The Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention wants your input by August 9, 2010 on federal policies and practices in these areas:
- education and at-risk youth
- juvenile reentry and transitions into adulthood
- racial/ethnic disparities in juvenile justice and related systems
- tribal youth and juvenile justice.

The Council has published a detailed request and guidelines in the Federal Register.

Here's the tricky part: to submit your comments, type "Juvenile Council" into the search box here labelled "Enter Keyword or ID." You'll likely get more than one search result, but look for the one that says, "Request for Public Comments - Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention." Don't click on it if you're ready to comment; instead, look over to the right, where you'll see a "Submit Comment" link. Click on that, and you'll be able to type in your comments. You can also scan other comments already submitted to the site. (If you can't submit your comments electronically, there are instructions in the guidelines for how to mail them in.)

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July 14, 2010
Juvenile Justice Reform: Improving Outcomes for Status Offenders
by BENJAMIN CHAMBERS

One of the four core principles of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) is that juvenile status offenders not be placed in secure detention. ("Status offenders" are minors who do things that would not generally be a offense if they were adults. For example, truants, runaways, and curfew violators are status offenders.)

However, an exception to the law was made in 1980 to allow courts to detain young people who had committed status offenses if they had also violated a "valid court order" -- the so-called "VCO exception."

As Nancy Gannon Hornberger writes in, "Improving Outcomes for Status Offenders in the JJDPA Reauthorization," which appeared in the summer 2010 issue of Juvenile and Family Justice Today from the National Council of Family and Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), "The nation is split. Twenty-five U.S. states and territories do not allow or do not use the VCO exception; in 30 states [including the territories, and Washington, D.C.], the VCO exception is allowable."

Approximately 12,000 non-delinquent status offenders are locked-up with delinquent youth each year. Serious concerns have been raised about whether such detentions do more harm than good. Juvenile justice practitioners, advocates and members of Congress have responded to these concerns with an amendment to the JJPDA to eliminate the VCO exception.

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