Families in Power: a Guide to Organizing on Juvenile Justice Reform
[The following column appeared in the February 2010 Campaign for Youth Justice e-newsletter, and is reprinted with permission. It has been edited slightly to incorporate hyperlinks into the text. - Ed.]
The Campaign for Youth Justice recently released a guide for families who want to do something to change the foolish and ineffective practice of trying our children as adults. Our new guide is entitled, "Families in Power: Family Guide to Networking, Coalition Building, Organizing and Campaign Building." The guide provides basic information about how families and allies can begin to organize themselves and others to change transfer practices and other overly punitive policies that negatively affect our children and our communities.
Here is one highlight from this new guide:
The first step in creating powerful families and organizing others is developing a way to talk about your issue with a wide variety of audiences. Many organizers refer to this as your "rap." Your rap about the transfer of children into the adult correctional and court systems should be your 30-second commercial that is designed to open up dialogue with others. It should include: a fact or two about youth transfer in order to educate people who may not know about transfer laws, why this is issue is important to you, and what you need from the person you are talking to. Be sure you have your facts down and that they are accurate. There are several fact sheets on the Campaign's website that can help you easily identify important facts. The best fact sheet to use summarizes the findings of CFYJ's Jailing Juveniles report and speaks to the danger children face in jails every day in this country.
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Roundup: Juvenile Court Training Curriculum (revised); Guide to Family Organizing from CFYJ; and Words that Don't Exist in Ohio
Click on the image above for an excellent, well-done video on Juvenile Justice in Wyoming, featuring former juvenile delinquent and U.S. senator, Alan Simpson.
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2010 Mentoring Grants from OJJDP
Have a youth mentoring program that's been up and running for at least a year?
You might consider applying for new mentoring grants from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). To "reduce juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, truancy, and other problem and high-risk behaviors," OJJDP wants to
enhance the capacity and effectiveness of established mentoring programs by: (1) augmenting the involvement of and services for the mentoring participants' parents; (2) expanding structured activities and opportunities for the mentors and mentoring participant(s); and (3) increasing the availability of ongoing mentor training and support.
Programs can use the grant to accomplish one or more of those three things. Awards will fall between $200,000 and $500,000 for 18 to 36 months. Application deadline is April 14, 2010.
Photo by Alaska Youth for Environmental Action.
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My Natural Helper
[The author is a young person (pictured below) who benefited from the Reclaiming Futures initiative at our site in Montgomery County, Ohio. The site has recruited over 190 "natural helpers" from the community for teens in the juvenile justice system. - Ed.]
Being in the natural helper program saved my life! I never imagined that when I was placed on probation that I would be linked to people who truly cared about me, let alone my future. | Read More ... |
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Roundup: Justice Department Launches Indigent Defense Program; Justice Policy Institute Slams Obama's Justice Budget; NIDA "Blending" Science and Service Conference; and More
Juvenile Justice System and Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment News
- At a recent symposium, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the indigent defense system was in "crisis." Now, the Department of Justice is launching "Access to Justice" to begin to work on solutions. (Hat tip to @piper.)
- The Attorney General also announced the creation of the Tribal Nations Leadership Council to advise him. Its formation "marks the first time a council composed of tribal leaders selected by tribal governments will advise Justice Department leadership on an ongoing basis."
- The number of juvenile offenders in residential placement dropped again this past year, according to a new fact sheet from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), "Juveniles in Residential Placement 1997-2008".
- The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) slammed Obama's justice budget: "more policing, prisons and punitive policies."
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Representing Juvenile Status Offenders - A Guide from the American Bar Association
Every year, thousands of kids (disproportionately girls and youth of color) end up in the juvenile justice system not because they've committed a crime, but because they're runaways, skipping school, or are simply hard to control. While these "status offenders" and their families need services -- and it can be tempting to detain them in order to protect them -- it's important to minimze their contact with the juvenile justice system, as research has shown that contact with the juvenile justice system can increase their risk to recidivate.
But despite the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), which has a core requirement focused on discouraging detention of juvenile status offenders, status offenders are handled differently by each state, and sometimes quite aggressively. Now, the American Bar Association (ABA) has published Representing Juvenile Status Offenders, an excellent resource for attorneys who represent them.
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One Parent's Experience with the Juvenile Justice System
Thank you for this opportunity to share my story. My oldest son became involved in the juvenile justice system in April of 2009, and completed his six-month probation period in November 2009. It wasn’t the first public system he’d been involved in, but I think as a mother…it was the most heart-wrenching. Many a night I had sent prayers up for him, fearing one day he might become involved in the justice system. After all, when you got right down to it, I really had no control over my child’s actions or his decision-making in my absence.
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Juvenile Justice System: Juvenile Reentry in Concept and Practice
In case you missed it, the National Reentry Resource Center hosted an excellent webinar on juvenile entry last month, featuring David M. Altschuler, Ph.D., principal research scientist at the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and Shay Bilchik, founder and director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.
The presentation, titled "Juvenile Reentry in Concept and Practice," defines juvenile reentry; lays out a conceptual framework for thinking about how youth should be reintegrated into the community; identifies the key risk and protective factors that services need to address; how to structure those services; and common obstacles to establishing adequate case management.
You can find a recording of the webinar and download the PowerPoint presentation at the National Reentry Resource Center's web page devoted to juveniles in the justice system.
Other Posts of Interest
- Dr. Altschuler on juvenile reentry
- Mr. Bilchik on addressing disproportionality in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems
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Roundup: Labeling Kids as Delinquent Increases Recidivism; Sports Improve Life Outcomes for Girls; How to Increase Collections from Insurance Companies, and More
Juvenile Justice Reform and Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment News
- Remember the Canadian study last year that followed youth for 20 years and found that youth who came into contact with the juvenile justice system were seven times more likely to commit crimes as adults? One reason for that was labeling. Now, here's more research that labeling kids as "juvenile delinquents" contributes to additional crime. (hat tip to @cjny.)Nevertheless, MD legislators are working hard to make sure that law enforcement and juvenile justice officials share information about kids with school administrators.
- The New York Times noted in an editorial that the Governor's budget for the coming year practically ignores the recommendations contained in the report of the Governor's task force on juvenile justice. In a separate editorial, the paper encouraged Congress to sponsor a proposed blue ribbon panel on the nation's criminal justice system.
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Juvenile Justice Reform: Crisis and Opportunity in New York
Anyone following juvenile justice issues in New York state cannot help but be struck by how much attention the field has received in recent months. Even as the media—from The New York Times and New York Magazine (image at right) to National Public Radio—eagerly document the need for local reform, there seems to be a groundswell of people thinking about ways to treat children as children, at home in their communities rather than in locked facilities, without compromising public safety.
On the state level, for example, a statewide Governor’s Task Force, chaired by Jeremy Travis (and staffed by my colleagues at the Vera Institute of Justice), has issued a call for reform that the state’s top juvenile justice officer, Commissioner Gladys Carrión, is actively pursuing. The task force report (seen at left), issued in December 2009, lays out a comprehensive roadmap for reducing juvenile corrections, reinvesting resources in community-based alternatives, eliminating racial inequities across the system, improving the supports and services provided to young people in state custody and upon release, and ensuring system accountability.| Read More ... |
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Benjamin Chambers