• Brevity is the soul of wit.
  -- Shakespeare

Brevity on the Net

Wednesday, August 31, 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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Remember the Superpredators? How About the Massive Crime Wave Predicted for 2004?

In 1995, James Alan Fox told USA Today “There is a tremendous crime wave coming in the next 10 years, fueled not by old, hardened criminals, but by a group he calls ‘the young and the ruthless.’ The Richmond Times-Dispatch interviews Fox and other juvenile justice luminaries about the crime wave that never was and why they think it didn’t happen.

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Florida Institute for Girls Closes Five Years After It Opened

At one time nearly 100 girls lived behind barbed wire and clanging doors at the maximum security prison. Juvenile justice officials now believe that large, prison-like warehouses don’t work with girls.  The state will probably spread out high risk girls among a number of facilities rather than concentrating them at one site. The Florida Institute for Girls was supposed to get the toughest girls in the state – those charged with crimes such as manslaughter, carjacking and rape, but some of the girls sent there were not hardened or violent offenders.

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Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) "Urbanized" Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

Since 2001 PSR has been implementing the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in 12 public schools in Philadelphia. A report on this program’s progress was a session at the 14th World Congress of Criminology August 9, 2005. A session abstract appears at the link above, a description of the Urbanized version of the Olweus program as implemented in Philadelphia by PSR.

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Raid of Drug Suppliers and Manufacturers Yields 400 Arrests

Operation Wildfire, deemed to be the first nationally coordinated investigation to target methamphetamine, resulted in more than 400 arrests and the dismantling of 56 clandestine drug laboratories. Police and drug agents found 30 children in the makeshift labs when they were raided. In the same week the Justice Department launched an anti-meth website for teens called Just Think Twice. The site features graphic pictures of drug users’ rotting teeth, before and after pictures of methamphetamine users and other warnings about the perils of methamphetamine use.

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Evaluation of G.R.E.A.T. – School-based Gang Prevention Program

A five-year longitudinal evaluation shows the Gang Resistance Education and Training has modest positive effects on adolescents’ attitudes and delinquency risk factors, but no effects on their involvement in gangs and actual delinquent behaviors. 6 page downloadable report.

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New York Drivers License Redesigned to Impact Forgery and Underage Drinking

New licenses include an "optical variable device" that creates a wavy line across the face of the license. It seemingly floats above the text and driver’s photo. Drivers under 25 will be the first to receive the new licenses. The licenses also use a special laminate that will more easily reveal alterations when viewed under a black light and will have “under 21” printed in red ink for all drivers under the legal drinking limit.

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Reuniting Families – The Family Finding Movement

Family Finding is a movement that is spreading nationwide and becoming one of the most promising trends in child welfare today. In 36 of 37 cases in which the strategy has been tried in Santa Clara County, Calif., children either were placed with relatives permanently or, developed potential lifelong connections with caring adults.

These connections were made with the assistance of a computer and a powerful Internet search engine. The search begins with a hunt for names in case files followed by specially crafted Internet searches. Once family members are located, social workers try to ease them into taking responsibility for children who have been separated from their families.

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Screening and Assessment Tools

In fulfilling a request for technical assistance this week I turned up these sites with information about screening and assessment . There were many more, but I thought these three were particularly helpful:

• Best Practices for Screening and Assessing Youth in the Juvenile Justice System – A set of six recommendations targeted for use by administrators and directors of juvenile justice facilities and their clinical staff.
• Juvenile Mental Health Screening and Assessment Guide – Thomas Grisso and Lee Underwood wrote this resource guide with sections on selecting screening and assessment instruments, a menu of instruments, and best practice selections. Downloadable. 90 pages.
• Risk and Assessment Instruments – From the NHTSA Implementation Guide for Juvenile Holdover Programs, an appendix that provides links to specific instruments and/or protocols and a list of additional instruments.

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Ohio Mom Barred from Smoking Near Her Children

The Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled a parent’s smoking habit is a factor domestic relations courts may consider in determining the best interests of children because it might affect their health and safety.

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Women Practice Defensive Drinking

A decade after date-rape drugs spread around the country, young women who go to nightclubs stick with their friends, hang on to their drinks and watch them carefully, just as carefully as they watch their purses. It is no longer acceptable for a stranger to bring a woman a drink.

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The Anti-Meth Site

Resources and information on methamphetamines from the KCI web site. Includes guidelines for cleaning up meth lab sites, meth prevention and education, treatment centers, FAQs.

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The Hookah Fad

aka, the nargile, the hubble-bubble, the water pipe. Smoking tobacco concoctions from a hookah is becoming a growing fad among the young. Although tobacco smoke in a hookah is filtered and water-cooled, it is just as dangerous as cigarette smoking. There are now hookah bars.

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Nineteen Alleged Ms-13 Gang Members Are Indicted

They were charged in an operation aimed at halting violence that has terrorized an area near Washington D.C. for the past three years. The indictment attributes six murders, five attempted murders and a kidnapping to the gang. The FBI will use the federal racketeering statute, the RICO law, to act against organized gangs as it did organized crime.

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Basic Facts About Low-Income Children

The NCCP (National Center for Children in Poverty) has released a set of three fact sheets that describe general demographic characteristics of children in low-income families – their number and proportion, where they live and how often they move, their age distribution, race, and ethnicity, and their parent’s education, employment marital status, and country of origin. The fact sheets cover Infants and Toddlers, Young Children, and All Children. downloadable.

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School Bus Drivers Can File Charges Against Motorists Who Pass Stopped School Buses

In West Virginia’s Kanawha County 152 bus drivers have been trained how to check an offender’s license plate and properly file criminal complaint paperwork in magistrate court.  They are expected to impact the problem of cars passing school buses as children are getting on and off.

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Billings Family Drug Treatment Court

Read about the Family Drug Treatment Court in Billings, Montana. The court was established in June 2001 and has since provided intensive, long-term help to 47 adults and 91 children.

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The Source 

Click on the link above and again on the image of the Spring 2005 issue of The Source.

The Source is the newsletter of the National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center. This issue concentrates on young children of substance users:

• Celebrating Families Program, a new approach to reunification for families separated due to parental substance abuse accompanied by neglect, domestic violence, or abuse.
• Comprehensive Asian Preschool Services (CAPS) project aimed at reducing health disparities and promoting the health and well-being of Asian/Pacific Islander children.
• Best Beginnings Plus - a program designed to support positive parent-child relationships, promote child health and development, enhance parental self-sufficiency, and prevent child abuse and neglect for families who abuse substances.
• Preschool Drug Prevention Project, a substance abuse prevention program that integrates various aspects of child development, addictions research, and early childhood education into a comprehensive drug abuse prevention effort.
  

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

• 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