Brevity on the Net

• State laws should prohibit children from waiving counsel or, at least, require children to consult with counsel before doing so.
  
• Juvenile courts should ensure that judges thoroughly inform and education children about their rights, that no child goes unrepresented at any critical state of proceedings and that indigent counsel be independent of the judiciary.
  
• Caseloads and resources at the county level should be manageable enough to allow defenders to properly investigate and prepare cases from arrest through appeal.
  
• Attorneys representing children in the juvenile justice system should have adequate physical resources, litigation support services and access to experts.

The full report, an 83 page pdf file is downloadable from the National Juvenile Defender Center web site at the link above.

Read an article from The Indianapolis Star about the report.

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Louisville Truancy Court DVD

I came home from Denver with about a hundred of these DVDs on the Truancy Court in Louisville, Kentucky run by Judge Joan Byer. The National Truancy Prevention Association presented at the conference and had these left over. I got them and I’m making them available to you. The DVD is about 25 minutes in length, in full color, and capably presented. If you’d like a copy, send me an email with your USPO mailing address and I’ll send you one. I’ll give them away until they run out. First come, first served.

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The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project is a nonprofit California organization that operates the nation’s only 24-hour suicide prevention helpline especially geared towards gay and questioning youth. It also provides other services, including guidance and resource for teens, teachers, parents and educators.

Gay teens are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, believed to be partly due to their increased risk of depression and anxiety triggered by the widespread harassment and bullying of gay teens.

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When Kids Commit Crimes: What’s a Fair Sentence?

On April 3 NPR host Margot Adler spoke with Barry Feld and other experts about the current state of juvenile justice administration in the U.S .This episode of the Justice Talking program looks at how teenage criminals are sentenced, at teens serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, and others who are serving sentences in adult facilities.

You can listen to the program on NPR or read/download a transcript of it at the Justice Talking web site.

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Drug Use Among Teens is Down Nationwide

The biggest decreases are driven by teens in the Midwest and South, according to a newly released SAMHSA study. Findings from the report:

• There were no statistically significant increases in any age group for drug use.
  
• Alcohol use ranged from a low of 29.3% in Utah to 62.1% in Wisconsin.
  
• Among teens, the only state to see an increase in tobacco use was California, from 9.2k% to 10.9%.
  
• Illicit drug use remained steady among all groups nationwide, but Florida, Nevada, Washington State and Washington, D.C. showed significant declines.
  
• Alaska had the highest rate of illegal drug use in the nation for the second year in a row.
  
• Alaska also had the highest percentage of people 12 and older who needed drug treatment but did not receive it.

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Integrating Systems of Care: Improving Quality of Care for the Most Vulnerable Children and Families

This monograph released by CWLA is the second of two to support the development of a consensus agenda for systems-culture change. It outlines a detailed plan for systems-culture change across systems and identifies the steps needed to implement this approach. At the link above you can download the pdf file for both monographs.

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School Violence Hot Line

Amid suspicion that school administrators are underreporting incidents of violence, the New York state Education Department plans a hot line on which people can report stabbings, rapes, robberies and other lesser assaults in their local schools. The hot line plan is part of a larger effort to overhaul what officials admit is a seriously flawed system for determining whether a given school is unsafe.

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Juvenile Runaways

The COPS latest POP Guide for police describes the problem of juvenile runaways and reviews its risk factors. It then identifies a series of questions to help analyze local juvenile runaway problems. While this document is written specifically for police, it can also be a useful resource for anyone who deals with runaways. 70 page pdf file.

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Teenage Girls Kept Quiet in the Face of Murder by Boys They Knew

Back in January, a surveillance video captured an early-morning attack on a homeless man by teen boys. Several teenage girls knew the boys who attacked three homeless men and knew what happened but did nothing about it. Experts say girls’ attraction to dangerous, even violent boys, and their ability to emotionally detach themselves from the boys’ crimes is typical of adolescence and symptomatic of modern teen life. 

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Physically Active Teens Get into Less Trouble

Researchers have found that compared with teens that spend much of their free time in from of the TV; those who are active often have higher self-esteem, better grades and are less prone to risky behavior like taking drugs, smoking, drinking or having sex.  The study highlights the fact that exercise is not only about weight control, but has other benefits.

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Using Non-Judicial Court Staff to Help Achieve Permanency for Children

The ABA Center on Children and the Law studied responsibilities of non-judicial court staff in several courts around the country, a group often overlooked even though they can have a significant impact on the court’s ability to achieve permanency for children. This online article combines a three-pat series. The first section discusses innovate docketing practices. The second summarizes additional activities reported to help achieve permanency in a timely and efficient manger and the third addresses the pre-appointment of counsel as a means to further improvements. This report prints out at nine pages.

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Youth Service Day April 21-23

Youth Service Day recognizes the contributions of youth to their communities throughout the year. On April 4, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution to commemorate National and Global Youth Service Day. The resolution not only recognizes the work young people are doing to address the needs in their communities, but it also demonstrates the broad-based support by government officials for the youth service field. For more information on Youth Service Day click on the link above.

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Job Corps: Promoting Success for Hispanic Youth

An overwhelming number of Hispanic youth leave school inadequately prepared to meet the demands of a changing labor market. Hispanic students are notably behind their counterparts in core academic skills and drop out of school at rates much higher than those of either blacks or non-Hispanic whites.

This report emphasizes the role Job Corps can play to actively engage Hispanic youth and their families through its leadership in education and training and its ability to adapt to changing workforce, education and training requirements. This 20 page report and recommendations is loaded with information and statistics about Hispanic youth and their families. One example:

• One third of Hispanics are under the age of 18; half are under age 27.
• About half of Hispanics age 15 and older are married

• Wyoming is down to two child psychiatrists.
  
• West Virginia has 1.3 child psychiatrists per 100,000 young people.