• Brevity is the soul of wit.
  -- Shakespeare

Brevity on the Net

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

 A weekly newsletter about juvenile justice
from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges,
Brevity brings you news and information from around the country and on the Internet.

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Clinical Evaluations for Juveniles’ Competence to Stand Trial: A Guide for Legal Professionals

This publication is the end result of the MacArthur Foundation Juvenile Competence to Stand Trial study. It was written by Thomas Grisso, PhD, and developed with the assistance of judges and attorneys throughout the country. This little book (56 pages) offers the best advice on this topic currently available. It is the first guide to assist legal professionals on how evaluations can be performed by forensic mental health professionals so that they can provide relevant information for judicial decisions.

Available from the Professional Resource Press at $18.95 per copy. Click on the link above to learn more.

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NEWS at a Glance - July/August 2005

OJJDP’s bimonthly online newsletter for July/August 2005 is now available to read at the link above. The top story in this issue is about the enhanced version of the online Model Programs Guide which helps communities find evidence based prevention and intervention programs that best suit their needs.

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Drug Courts: An Effective Strategy for Communities Facing Methamphetamine

This new BJA (Bureau of Justice Assistance) Bulletin finds drug courts to be the primary tool for fighting methamphetamine addiction and trafficking. Drug courts offer longer treatment periods, an emphasis on addressing co-occurring mental health disorders, and intensive community supervision and monitoring. They also help children who are exposed to meth use by providing them with health care, educational, and child protective services. Downloadable 16  page pdf file.

And, here is a link to a National Drug Court Institute Drug Court Practitioner Fact Sheet on Methamphatmines

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The Juvenile Justice Professional’s Guide to Human Subjects Protection and the IRB Process

An online guide to the law and regulations that govern research involving human subjects prepared by our research branch, the National Center for Juvenile Justice. This will be particularly valuable to juvenile justice professionals in protecting and rights and ensuring the well-being of youth under the supervision of the juvenile justice system. Those who plan to establish an Institutional Review Board (IRB) will find the guide to be a practical resource as well.

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At War With the Pimps of Children

Two years ago the U.S. Department of Justice set sex trafficking of children as a top priority  The government identified 13 American cities that have the biggest problems and demanded that multiagency task forces be set up in each community to investigate pimps and coordinate therapy and housing for the victims. The FBI is now prepared to dedicate teams of agents to each of the cities to focus solely on busting traffickers. This article reports on the first-ever federal prosecution of juvenile sex trafficking in Chicago.

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Mental Illness Begins in Adolescence and Often Goes Untreated, Unrecognized

One-half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 often followed by long delays between the onset of symptoms and seeking treatment. Delays, which can span decades, lead to more severe and difficult-to-treat illnesses and co-occurring disorders. Disorders that emerge in childhood are associated with the longest delays in treatment , even though childhood disorders are often more serious than those that strike later in life. Read this NMHA report on the results of a new Mental Health study led by Harvard University.

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Guardian Sues to Sterilize Her Niece

An unusual and emotionally charged legal case pits a 26-year-old mentally disabled woman  and her guardian against each other in the guardian’s legal bid to sterilize the woman. Seeking an involuntary sterilization in court is highly unusual.

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Planning Community-based Facilities for Violent Juvenile Offenders as part of a System of Graduated Sanctions.

This new OJJDP Bulletin from the Juvenile Justice Practice Series discusses the use of small, secure, community-based or regional facilities to house, serious, violent, and/or chronic juvenile offenders. It presents essential information regarding planning community-based or regional facilities to provide secure confinement for serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders and outlines a process for their development. 39 page pdf file.

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National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) Resource Materials on Working with LGBTQ Youth in State Custody

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems are at a disproportionately high risk of experience violence, harassment, and discrimination in state care because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. To address this problem NCLR recently released a tool kit with resources designed to educate people about working with these youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

At the link above you can download the following tool kit resources:

• A guide for attorneys representing LGBT youth in delinquency proceedings.
• Information about California’s law prohibiting harassment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identify in the foster care system.
• A “Know Your Rights” brochure for LGBTQ youth in foster care.
• Fact sheets on LGBTQ youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
  

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Medical and Legal Teamwork to Respond to the Needs of Low-income Children and Their Families

The Montana Children and Family Advocacy Program brings together health and legal professionals to improve the health and welfare of low-income children and their families through legal assistance provided in a healthcare setting. There are 30 such programs around the country, but this program is the first of its kind in the Mountain West. Since the first of the year doctors, nurses, social workers and others have referred 62 cases for legal advice ranging from simple living wills to complex family law.

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Investigating Child Fatalities – Portable Guides to Investigating Child Abuse Series

Provides concise, practical information to assist law enforcement officers in investigating fatalities in which it is believed that abuse or neglect may have caused or contributed to the child’s death. Describes how child fatalities differ from other homicide case and offers guidelines for conducting the investigation, documenting the case, interrogating suspects, and testifying in court. 36 page pdf file.

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Disclosure of Confidential Child Abuse and Neglect Records

This entry from NCCAN’s State Statutes Series 2005 is a brief overview of state statutes on the confidentiality of child abuse and neglect records.

From this document:

• In approximately 23 States and the District of Columbia, some disclosure of information is allowed in cases in which abuse or neglect of the child has resulted in a fatality or near fatality.
  
  In five States the alleged perpetrator of the abuse must be criminally charged with causing the fatality or near fatality before information may be disclosed.
  
• Approximately 12 states allow disclosure of information for the purpose of clarifying or correcting the record when information has already been made public through another source.

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Genetic Testing Informs About 4% of Fathers that a Child They are Raising Isn’t Theirs

British researchers say that about 4% of fathers, about 1 in 25 families, are raising children who are not theirs. The implications of the study are huge because such revelations often lead to divorce and increased mental health problems for both the man and woman involved, including the threat of violence for men. They say the problem will only grow more serious as genetic testing is used for more purposes.

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Juvenile Arrests 2003

Summary and analysis of national and state juvenile arrest data presented in the FBI report “Crime in the United States 2003.”  Findings include the following:

• Juvenile violent crime arrests in 2003 reached their lowest level since 1980.
• The juvenile arrest rate for each of the offenses tracked in the FBI’s Violent Crime Index (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) has been declining steadily since the mid-1990s.
• For murder, the rate fell 77% from its 1993 peak through 2003.

12 page pdf file.

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Tools for Permanency – Family Group Decision Making

Tool #2 from the National Resource Center for Foster Care & Permanency Planning offers information about this family-focused, culturally sensitive approach to developing safety and permanency plans for families with children who are in foster care or at risk of entering foster care due to parental abuse or neglect.  Other tools available: Concurrent Permanency Planning and Child Welfare Mediation.

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Gossip Turns Out to Serve a Purpose

Here’s one just for fun. Long term studies confirm that the content and frequency of gossip are universal: people devote anywhere from a fifth to two-thirds or more of their daily conversation to gossip, and men appear to be just as eager for the skinny as women. Surveys found that sneaking, lying and cheating among friends or acquaintances make for the most savory material and that most people pass on their best nuggets to at least two other people.

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Upcoming NCJFCJ Conferences - For more details on the conferences listed below, click on this link.

• Managing Challenging Family Law Cases: A Practical Approach – August 29-Sept.1, 2005 – Reno, Nevada
• Judicial Response to Alcohol and Other Drugs – September 11-16, 2005 – Reno, Nevada
  Fall College: The Role of the Judge – September 11-16, 2005 – Reno, Nevada
• Forum on Children and Families in Court – October 16-19, 2005 – Cleveland, Ohio
• Juvenile Justice Management Institute – October 23-28, 2005 – Reno, Nevada
• Evidence in Juvenile and Family Court – October 23-28, 2005 – Reno, Nevada