Brevity is the soul of wit.
-- ShakespeareBrevity on the NetWednesday, April 19, 2006 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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Who Watches Out for the Kids?
NBC staged an abduction of a young child on a busy street and watched to see what would happen. Watch this brief video and pay attention to your own reaction. I was both chagrined and gratified.
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Two Maine Sex Offenders Killed by an Apparent Vigilante – The Death of One Raises Questions About the Appropriate Use of Registries
The death of one of the two reignites the national debate over sex offender registries. William Elliott, 24, had been convicted of having sex with a girlfriend when she was two weeks shy of her 16th birthday and he was 19. There is some question whether he should have been on the registry at all. Maine posts online everyone convicted of a sex crime, their addresses, and pictures, on a database accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
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Katrina Puts a New Spin on Custody Disputes
Judges and lawyers in New Orleans say they have seen scores of family disputes related to the storm. Families are experiencing painful new battles over child custody and visitation, financial support and division of assets. State guidelines do not address emergency upheavals like those caused by hurricane Katrina. Judges are left to determine when a required evacuation becomes a voluntary relocation and who can stay where and for how long.
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Restorative Justice Research
The Jerry Lee Program on Randomized Controlled Experiments in Restorative Justice is comparing restorative conference outcomes, for both victims and offenders, to those of conventional practices in numerous criminal cases in Australia and the United Kingdom. Results to date show that restorative justice produces substantial and statistically significant benefits for victims of crime.
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Violence Against Women with Mental Illness
This issue brief from the Consensus Project examines what is known about the vulnerability to violent crime of women with mental illness; what programs have attempted to service this population of women; what resources are available to the field and other issues. 16 page downloadable pdf file.
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When a Child Says He’s a Killer
A Georgia case brings up questions about stiff juvenile penalties for murder. A 12-year-old (now 14) who was locked up for strangling 8-year-old Amy Yates has been released and a mentally disabled 18-year-old who was minor at the time of the crime has confessed. Authorities don’t know which youth, if either, should be held accountable. The father of the girl is struggling to see justice served both for his daughter and the two young suspects.
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A Guide to Online Resources in Family Involvement
This Harvard Family Research Project has compiled and categorized a large body of information to make it easier to access and use. The guide includes sections on standards, programs, tools and special initiatives and is available online as a BIG pdf file.
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Clark v. Arizona
On Wednesday (April 19, 2006) the Supreme Court took up the case and the issue of just how difficult states can make it for criminal defendants to prove insanity. Eric Clark was a 17-year-old high school senior when he shot and killed a Flagstaff, Arizona policeman. He had been a popular, gifted athlete when he began the descent into behavior later diagnosed as schizophrenia.
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Get the Facts About Your State’s Dropout Rate
The STAND UP web site provides factual information about each state in the country at this web site and includes information about schools too.
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Prom Season
Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, Arizona requires all parents to attend a two-hour forum on substance abuse prevention before their kids are allowed to attend the prom or a winter formal. The course is based on the “Community of Concern” program developed over the past eight years by parents and officials at a Catholic high school outside Washington, D.C.
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Check & Connect – A Model for Engaging Students in School
Check & Connect was developed with input from individuals directly involved with youth at high risk for school failure. The program was originally developed for urban middle school students with learning and behavioral challenges to prevent dropping out. The model is currently being replicated and field tested for youth with and without disabilities in grades K-12 in urban and suburban communities.
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New Parental Responsibility Ordinance
In Maple Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, parents could face misdemeanor convictions and pay up to $3,000 in restitution if their children are changed with a crime. The new ordinance was adopted this month in response to frequent complaints of disruptive teens congregating, violating curfew, or vandalizing.
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National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities
Services and support offered at this new web site include technical assistance, Enews, research, and information about effective practices to increase school completion rates and decrease dropout rates among students with disabilities.
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Evaluation Toolkit
The National Resource Center for Community Based Child Abuse Prevention offers this toolkit developed to help provide evidence that programs make meaningful differences and intended to be a resource for developing an individualized evaluation plan from the ground up. The kit includes a Logic Model Builder.
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Being Young, Black and Male
This news article surveys conditions of and reasons for the criminalization of black males and describes a number of programs and approaches to the problem.
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College for Intellectually Disabled Kids
There are currently 115 postsecondary programs for intellectually disabled students in the country. The goal of many of the programs is to help children develop the skills they need to get and keep a job. The key to the success for such programs is early intensive intervention.
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Adolescent Privacy Rights
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that health care providers and others are not required to report all underage sexual activity between consenting youths as sexual abuse. The case arose as the result of Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline’s interpretation of the state’s 1982 mandatory reporting law in which he said doctors, nurses, counselors, teachers and others were required to tell authorities about consensual sex by underage youths. The age of consent in Kansas is 16.
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Female Youths in U.S. More Likely than Males to Initiate Alcohol, Cigarette, or Marijuana Use in 2004
Girls ages 12 to 17 are more likely than their male counterparts to initiate alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana use, according to data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The findings are of concern because rates of substance use among young girls already rival those of young boys.
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Conferences and Grants
Demonstration Grants to Improve Juvenile Justice
Deadline: April 24 to register; May 1 for proposals
OJJDP is making available seven grants of up to $300,000 as start-up funding for projects which improve delivery of juvenile justice systems. Multidisciplinary approaches utilizing collaboration with community-based organizations are encouraged, as long as they lead to innovations and advancements in juvenile justice related activities. For details, click on the link above. G.R.E.A.T. Conference to Promote Gang Prevention
July 26-28, 2006, in La Quinta, Calif., The Bureau of Justice Assistance will offer a broad range of workshops designed to address the needs of communities implementing the Gang Resistance Education and Training Program and those interested in doing so. The Conference registration fee has been waived. Participants are responsible for travel, lodging and meals. For more information, click on the link above. Graduated Sanctions in Juvenile Justice: A National Training
May 7-10, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nev., NCJFCJ, with support from OJJDP, will introduce new graduated sanctions tools for administrators and practitioners, strategies for building a continuum of services; and the transition of graduated sanctions into the Delinquency Guidelines initiatives. At the link above you will find more details and a conference brochure.
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Joey Binard, Senior Program Manager
Technical Assistance Resource Center
Juvenile & Family Law Department
NCJFCJ
Brevity is supported by Grant No.2005-JL-FX-0065 from the
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice
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