| May 2, 2013
No comments

Efforts Underway to Fight Student Homelessness in Nevada, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and the U.S. Congress

1.6 Million Homeless American Children

1.6 Million Homeless American Children (Photo credit: Occupy* Posters)

There were 1,065,794 homeless students in the U.S. in June 2011, The U.S. Education Department estimates. Recent data show that the number of homeless students rose in 44 states, and that 15 states saw increases of 20% or more. Kentucky had a 57% rise in homeless students over one year. The U.S. homeless student count rose 57% since the start of the recent recession, in 2007.

Prominent homelessness expert Diana Nilan (who once was homeless herself) says:

The government estimate of over a million homeless students is horrifyingly high, but it probably is half of what it would be if all the kids were counted. The count doesn’t include homeless infants, children not enrolled in school and homeless students that schools simply failed to identify.

Seventy-one percent of the kids identified as homeless by the Education Department listed the homes of family or friends as their primary residence, but these kids aren’t counted as homeless by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which means they can’t apply for subsidized housing. That’s bogus!

Many parents fear losing custody of their children who sleep on the street, so they seek alternative living situations (such as in motels, sleeping on friends’ couches and moving around a lot). Efforts are underway in Congress to pass HR 32, which would broaden HUD’s current very-narrow definition of homeless children (those on the streets and in shelters only) and permit more of them to receive government assistance.

A new report shows that only 52% of homeless students who took standardized tests were proficient in reading and only 51% were in math. In Virginia, 21.2% of students who are homeless at some point during their high school years drop out, compared with 14.8% of all poor children. In Colorado, the high school graduation rate is 72% for all students, 59% for poor students and 48% for homeless students,

“When “you don’t have a permanent place to stay, you have to change schools a lot,” said Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. “It sets you far behind and is socially and emotionally disruptive.”

When Sherrie Gahn became principal of Whitney Elementary in Las Vegas, she was shocked to find students eating ketchup from packets and learned that 85% of them were homeless.
So she told parents:

Give me your children and let me teach them, and in turn I will give you food and clothes and we will take them to the eye doctor. I will pay your rent and your utilities, but you must keep your child here.

Funded by organizations and private donors, she meets a wide range of homeless student needs, from haircuts to financial assistance—and as a result those kids have doubled their standardized test scores. She is now working with Nevada’s First Lady, Kathleen Sandoval, to create an after-school program that will make the children feel productive. Gahn has also promised her homeless students that if they graduate from high school and cannot afford college, she will help pay their tuition.

In Minnesota, where 9% of students were homeless last year (and at least one was regularly sleeping in a public toilet), the legislature is considering a $50 million boost in homelessness programs, plus $50 million in bonding for affordable housing. Last year the state spent $8 million transporting homeless students.

In Pittsburgh, between 2005 and 2009, black homeless families made up 56.3% of residents in family homeless shelters, even though they only accounted for 12 %of the city’s population. Educational disparity is one major reason. So after-school programs are being introduced in homeless shelters.

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Education, Homelessness, Humane Exposures, Shelter | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| April 25, 2013
One comment

Multisystemic Therapy Shown to Reduce Youth Imprisonment, Recidivism and Expenditure

kids_bars_02

kids_bars_02 (Photo credit: jimhflickr)

Multisystemic therapy (MST), which is used in more than a dozen countries (including Norway, U.K., The Netherlands and Sweden) and more than 30 U.S. states, has consistently been shown to reduce juvenile corrections facility populations (resulting in the money-saving closure of many of them), and seriously cut down recidivism rates among young participants..

Utilized with the toughest, most violent and most incorrigible youngsters (including chronic drug abusers and kids convicted of sex crimes), MST is an intensive family- and community-based program that addresses all environmental systems which impact chronic young offenders: their homes, schools, neighborhoods and friends.

A 2009 Cook County, IL study on the effects of MST concluded that:

Family- and community-based interventions, especially those with an established evidence-base in treating adolescent antisocial behavior, hold considerable promise in meeting the clinical needs of juvenile sexual offenders.

“In addition, current results supporting MST bring into question the public health/safety effects of the increasingly severe legal consequences (e.g., lifetime public registration, prolonged residential treatment) placed on juveniles who sexually offend.

Unfortunately, fewer than 3% of juvenile offenders currently receive MST treatment.

Charles Borduin of the University of Missouri conducted a 20-year study which found that only 4.3% of MST participants were arrested for violent felonies after treatment, versus 15.5% in the individual-treatment group. They also committed far fewer non-violent felonies and misdemeanors. Borduin estimated that treating one young offender with MST saved taxpayers and crime victims $75,110 to $199,374 over 14 years.

The first U.K. trial of MST
reported:

MST made a great impact on all types of offenses. At the 18-month follow up, 8% of the MST group had offended in the previous six months, compared with 36% of the comparison group.

Canada is currently funding MST research in the hope of preventing or reducing offending among high-risk populations. Connecticut, which used to be one of the only three states that automatically tried and punished all 16 and 17 year-olds as adults, has introduced MST and as a result has so significantly reduced its youth-offender population in detention centers that it was able to close one of the facilities. Pennsylvania has seen similar results in those counties where MST was introduced.

Over the past decade, research (such as into MST) has contributed to recent legislative trends to help distinguish juvenile from adult offenders, restore the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and adopt scientific assessment tools to structure decision-making and identify needs of juvenile offenders. Policies have become more research-based, and youth interventions are moving to more evidence-based versions across a range of programs and services.

Related articles

http://www.healthcanal.com/mental-health-behavior/23552-Treatment-for-Juvenile-Offenders-Shows-Positive-Effects-Years-Later-Including-Reduced-Recidivism-Rates.html

Butler, S., Baruch, G., Hickey, N & Fonagy, P. (2011). A Randomized Controlled Trial of Multisystemic Therapy and a Statutory Therapeutic Intervention for Young Offenders. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 50(12), 1220-1235.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Humane Exposures |
| April 18, 2013
No comments

Family Homelessness is Increasing, But Multiple Strategies Can Reduce It

 

English: A homeless man in New York with the A...

English: A homeless man in New York with the American flag in the background. Français : Un homme sans domicile fixe à New York. Un drapeau des États-Unis est visible en arrière plan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The National Center on Family Homelessness (NCFH) reports that U.S. family homelessness rose by 38% from 2007 to 2010.

A more recent Point-in-Time Count conducted by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) found that on a night in January 2012 families containing 239,403 persons (an estimated 77,157 households) were homeless That number was up 1.4%, over 2011.The Department of Education reports that nearly 1,065,794 public school children were identified as homeless over the course of the 2010-2011 school year (the highest number on record).

Currently the U.S has a shortage of 6.8 million affordable housing units. USICH believes that the most common reasons for families becoming homeless are the inability to find stable housing, loss of a job or doing work that doesn’t pay enough to afford housing, health crises, domestic violence, having children at a young age and lack of a strong social support network.

A report from NCFH states: Without a place to call home, children are challenged by unpredictability, insecurity and chaos. Families experiencing homelessness are vulnerable; most have experienced extreme poverty, residential instability and violence; and many parents have limited education and work histories.

Often, families who are homeless have experienced ongoing trauma in the form of childhood abuse and domestic and community violence, as well as the traumas associated with poverty and the loss of home, safety and sense of security.

These experiences can significantly impact how children and adults think, feel, behave, relate to others and cope. A constant barrage of stressful and traumatic experiences can have profound effects on a child’s development and his/her ability to learn, ultimately affecting success in life.

In June 2010, USICH released a Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, which claimed that adequate funding, political will and commitment at all levels of government could end family homelessness by 2020.

The multi-faceted strategy to accomplish this involves: 1) supporting federal homeless programs, 2) utilizing programs that help children and youths thrive; 3) supporting veterans and their families; 4) reducing and preventing domestic violence and protecting survivors; 5) initiating and supporting trauma-informed care; 6) investing in data collection; and 7) developing best practices.

Reverend Bobbi Virta, of the 44-member Interfaith Coalition on Homelessness in Whatcom County, WA, reports that a 2012 Point-in-Time Count found that 22% of the homeless in her community were younger than 18.

She says:

Homeless families are often doubled-up, moving from one friend’s house to the next. They are sleeping in cars or camping outside. Some are lucky enough to get a voucher for an occasional night in a cheap motel for the chance to shower. Parents are struggling to keep it together, and children are struggling to stay in school.

Although many group shelters separate fathers and boys older than 12 from mothers and daughters, her Coalition’s nine temporary/emergency housing facilities allow families to stay together. She reports that after three months of emergency housing, 90% of the homeless residents leave for stable, long-term housing.

Related articles

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Homelessness | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| April 16, 2013
No comments

Our Hearts Go Out To Boston

Today the Humane Exposures team would like to share both our sympathies and our condolences with the people of Boston and to those injured or who lost their lives in the recent bombing.

Sudden tragedy can make one’s outlook bleak, and inspire an immediate desire for retribution. Let us hope that those charged with finding the bomber do not let this impulse cloud their vision, for it is important that justice be done.

In the meantime Boston and the nation reel. Our hearts and our thoughts are with the victims.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,
| April 12, 2013
No comments

Juvenile Facilities Need to Promote the Mental Health and Well-being of LGBT Youth

A position paper from the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) recently published in the Journal of Adolescent Health calls on professionals in juvenile justice, public health, law, government and other fields to take steps to encourage the healthy development of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) youth, who are at greater risk than others for bullying and victimization. Lack of acceptance by others has been shown to subject them to greater stress, leading to risky behavior and mental health issues that can land them in the juvenile justice system.

The paper also urges professionals to better understand the needs of LGBT youngsters and to advocate for policy changes to support them at school, at home and in child welfare and juvenile justice settings.

In one study cited in the paper 85% of LGBT students said that they had been verbally harassed, 40% reported physical harassment and two thirds said they felt unsafe at school. Another study discussed in the report links LGBT victimization to nightmares, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and suicide attempts.

The SAHM paper urges the enactment of anti-bullying laws and policies and encourages professionals to educate their communities about preventing victimization of LGBT adolescents. Additional research into LGBT health needs is also needed.

The paper takes a strong stance against “reparative therapy” intended to alter individuals’ sexual orientation.

The document’s lead author Dr.David Reitman declares:

Science has firmly established that gender identity and sexual orientation are not choices, and there are a lot of data indicating that reparative therapy is harmful.

The paper states that juvenile justice agencies should develop policies to safeguard the physical and emotional well-being of detained youth. Agencies should partner with public health practitioners to access expertise on health issues facing LGBT youth, the report adds.

A major concern is LGBT youth being isolated, discriminated against or ignored in detention facilities. Other concerns are gender-based housing decisions and continuity of hormone treatment for transgender youth. SAHM recommends that juvenile justice facilities access guidelines published by other groups for serving youth in group facilities.

Reitman adds:

For juvenile justice facilities in particular the data show that there’s a sense that it’s acceptable for staff to use derogatory language or allow kids to do so. Providing ongoing education to staff is even more important in these settings, as is requiring staff and inmates to behave respectfully toward one another. Ignoring the issue is harmful, because when staff fail to call kids out on it, it’s viewed as an unspoken endorsement.

To support LGBT youth, professionals running programs need to set up rules to ensure that bullying isn’t tolerated. Young people must know they are expected to treat each other with respect, and workers need to hold youth who do not do so accountable. If staff members hear unacceptable language being used, they should talk to the speaker about how it makes others feel. If any young person seems particularly anxious, depressed or withdrawn, possibly due to bullying, they should be connected to appropriate mental health services.

LGBT youth face a number of challenges and risks other teens don’t. Providers working with these adolescents must learn to recognize these challenges and support youth to help them achieve self-acceptance and healthy development.

Category: Juvenile Justice | Tags: , , , , , ,
| April 9, 2013
One comment

Elemental Crime: Pb(CH2CH3)4 and the Cycle of Violence

English: Lead Paint

English: Lead Paint (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many factors go into the making of an American criminal, but who would have thought that one of them might be lead?

A recent investigative piece by Mother Jones reporter Kevin Drum asserts just that, and it has sparked a wild flurry of debate in the wake of his extensive and damning article.

We all know that many childhood factors can influence a tendency towards crime. Broken homes, exposure to additive substances and many more are often trotted out, and rightfully so. Drum asserts that the ambient lead caused by lead paint and vehicle exhaust are directly linked  to crime rates.

Rick Nevin, a consultant working for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, began finding correlations between the rise and fall of leaded gasoline and urban crime rates. He discovered that they describe almost identical curves, but are 23 years out of synch.

Jessica Reyes, public health policy professor at Amherst, weighs in on the research she did, inspired by being pregnant in a old house and learning about the dangers of lead. What Nevin found on the grand scale she found to also hold true on a more granular level (reporting via Mother Jones) :

If childhood lead exposure really did produce criminal behavior in adults, you’d expect that in states where consumption of leaded gasoline declined slowly, crime would decline slowly too. Conversely, in states where it declined quickly, crime would decline quickly. And that’s exactly what she found.

Meanwhile, Nevin had kept busy as well, and in 2007 he published a new paper looking at crime trends around the world (PDF). This way he could make sure the close match he’d found between the lead curve and the crime curve wasn’t just a coincidence. Sure, maybe the real culprit in the United States was something else happening at the exact same time, but what are the odds of that same something happening at several different times in several  countries?

Nevin collected lead data and crime data for Australia and found a close match. Ditto for Canada, Great Britain,  Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand and West Germany. Every time the two curves fit each other astonishingly well. When I spoke to Nevin about this, I asked him if he had ever found a country that didn’t fit the theory. “No,” he replied. “Not one.”

Just this year, Tulane University researcher Howard Mielke published a paper with demographer Sammy Zahran on the correlation of lead and crime at the city level. They studied six US cities that had both good crime data and good lead data going back to the ’50s, and they found a good fit in every single one. In fact, Mielke has even studied lead concentrations at the neighborhood level in New Orleans and shared his maps with the local police. “When they overlay them with crime maps,” he told me, “they realize they match up.”

As New Orleans native I can tell you that the maps comparing crime and lead here in the Crescent City are so accurate that it is spooky.

Down under in Australia, researchers are finding almost identical results. ABC News Australia covered this as recently as Tuesday, April 9th when they published the following:

Professor Mark Taylor, an environmental scientist at Macquarie University, has now begun Australia’s first study comparing suburbs with high lead air pollution levels and local crime rates.

Professor Taylor says his research also indicates there is close to a 20-year time lag between the peaks in lead air pollution and peaks in the rates of assault.

  • Boolaroo: Lead air pollution peaked in 1988. The assault rate peaked 21 years later in 2009.
  • Earlwood, Sydney: Lead air pollution peaked in 1982. The assault rate peaked 20 years later in 2002.
  • Port Kembla: Lead air pollution peaked in 1979. The assault rate peaked 20 years later in 1999.
  • Lane Cove, Sydney: Lead air pollution peaked in 1978. The assault rate peaked 21 years later in 1999.

‘The locations we are looking at are, for example, Sydney, Rozelle, Earlwood, Boolaroo, the old lead smelter, Port Kembla as well, so we have been able to extract reasonably good records for those locations,’ he said.

‘We are not saying that it’s a one-to-one relationship; what we are saying is that lead exposure is associated with violent activity.’

The evidence just seems to keep piling up. While correlation does not denote causation, the correlations here seem to be almost universal. Here are a few links that provide a range of additional info on the subject.

Forbes, however, has done the best job of succinctly explaining why Drum’s theories hold the ring of truth:

There are three basic reasons why this theory should be believed. First, as Drum points out, the numbers correlate almost perfectly. ‘If you add a lag time of 23 years,’ he writes. ‘Lead emissions from automobiles explain 90 percent of the variation in violent crime in America. Toddlers who ingested high levels of lead in the ’40s and ’50s really were more likely to become violent criminals in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.’

Second, this correlation holds true with no exceptions. Every country studied has shown this same strong correlation between leaded gasoline and violent crime rates. Within the United States, you can see the data at the state level. Where lead concentrations declined quickly, crime declined quickly. Where it declined slowly, crime declined slowly. The data even hold true at the neighborhood level – high lead concentrations correlate so well that you can overlay maps of crime rates over maps of lead concentrations and get an almost perfect fit.

Third, and probably most important, the data go beyond just these models. As Drum himself points out, ‘If econometric studies were all there was to the story of lead, you’d be justified in remaining skeptical no matter how good the statistics look.’ But the chemistry and neuroscience of lead gives us good reason to believe the connection. Decades of research has shown that lead poisoning causes significant and probably irreversible damage to the brain. Not only does lead degrade cognitive abilities and lower intelligence, but it also degrades a person’s ability to make decisions by damaging areas of the brain responsible for ’emotional regulation, impulse control, attention, verbal reasoning and mental flexibility.’

So there you have it: the latest front in the battle against crime is chemistry.

If any of our readers have a neuroscience background, we would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Criminal Justice, Health, Juvenile Justice, Mental Health | Tags: , , , , , ,
| April 7, 2013
One comment

Aging Street Dwellers Could Remain Homeless for Life Unless More Housing is Found

English: Homeless veteran in New York

English: Homeless veteran in New York (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A recent report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness predicted the number of elderly homeless people could increase 33% by 2020 and more than double by 2050.

The alliance recommends that the supply of subsidized affordable housing for economically struggling elderly persons be increased and that permanent housing be created to end chronic homelessness. The alliance also suggests advancing research to better understand the needs of the elderly homeless population.

In Pasadena, CA, homelessness increased more than 21% between 2009 and 2011. The 2010 US Census found that more than 21,000 people in 8,000 households in Pasadena (a fairly wealthy city) had incomes below $15,000 and were considered at-risk for homelessness. Researchers also found that 14% of Pasadena residents were living below the poverty level, including 19% of children, 23% of families with a female head and 13% of people over 65.

Anne Lansing, co-chair of the Pasadena Housing and Homeless Network and project manager for the Pasadena Housing Department says:

As the population ages, the homeless population will age correspondingly with it. If they’ve become homeless when they were seniors, there is a great deal of anger. They feel that society has basically failed in its social contract.

Most of these seniors have been homeless for a long time, aging on the street. Unless there are serious efforts to increase their housing opportunities, many will continue to live on the streets.

Providing for the elderly homeless provides new challenges for agencies, because older people are sicker and require a wide range of medical services. A lack of housing exacerbates their medical problems. Lansing points out that arthritis is more debilitating when one is sleeping on concrete instead of a bed.

Marvin Gross, CEO of Union Station Homeless Services, in Pasadena, says:

We don’t dispense medication, but we work with seniors to make sure that they take certain medications at a certain time. Seniors need more time and attention from our case-management staff.

Union Station offers two health clinics, and its staff arranges doctors’ appointments and ER visits. Staffers also assist those with mobility and mental health issues.

Because many seniors are in poor health, they are unable to perform the activities that enable some younger homeless people to eventually become self-sufficient. So homeless seniors are more likely to remain homeless for the rest of their lives.

Union Station provides employment assistance for its homeless population, but many homeless seniors face age discrimination when they attempt to re-enter the workplace.
Gross adds:

Homelessness is one more barrier to getting a job. Many seniors are disabled and can’t get work.

Elderly people who are homeless are often eligible for government assistance, including Social Security, Medicare, Medi-Cal and Section 8 rent subsidies, but they are often unaware that they qualify for these programs. Or they do not know how to obtain these benefits. Helping senior citizens receive assistance is yet another task that Union Station performs for its residents.

Related articles

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Homelessness, Humane Exposures | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| April 3, 2013
No comments

Signal Amplification: The National Juvenile Justice Network’s Leadership Institute seeking reformers.

The National Juvenile Justice Network’s Leadership Institute is looking for ten great reformers.

Picture somebody in your mind — someone you know — who wants to set the juvenile justice world on fire.  Someone who’s fed up with seeing kids get kicked out of school for minor misbehavior, locked up without due process, or any of a hundred other unjust, unfair things that can blight young people’s lives.

You can see this person in your mind’s eye, right?  You’re picturing someone who stands up, speaks out, and can work with others to reform what’s not working.   A person, in other words, who is ready to take the next step to grow as a leader.

Chances are this army-of-one you’re picturing in your mind is ready to apply to the Youth Justice Leadership Institute, a robust, year-long fellowship program run by the National Juvenile Justice Network that focuses on cultivating and supporting professionals of color. Our goal is to create the foundation for a more effective juvenile justice reform movement by developing a strong base of advocates and organizers who reflect the communities most affected by juvenile justice system practices and policies.

By the way, your force-of-nature will not need to quit his or her job. It does mean that he or she will join a hand-picked group of 10 fellows assembled from all over the country to learn about leadership, juvenile justice system policies and practices, theories of change, and how to develop their skills as advocates.  Plus, it’s free (or close to it). Travel and lodging are paid for; tuition is minimal when compared to other programs of this length and intensity.

Applications are due May 6, 2013.

Anyone who wants to apply for the Institute can:

 

This year, Diana will host two informational webinars for prospective applicants:

•           April 4, 2013, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm EST (click to register)

•           April 10, 2013, 1 pm – 2 pm EST (click to register)

 

Please share this announcement with your networks!

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Humane Exposures, Juvenile Justice | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| March 29, 2013
No comments

Tent Cities Provide a Temporary Alternative to Homelessness

"Nickelsville" homeless encampment (...

“Nickelsville” homeless encampment (named after Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels) towards the end of its 3-month stay in the parking lot of the University Congregational United Church of Christ in the University District, Seattle, Washington. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since the US and world economies cratered in 2007 there has been a large increase in homelessness. Supportive services have become overburdened, and many people have abandoned the shelter system altogether and moved into tent cities.

 
In 1990 Seattle had one of the first tent cities, created by a sponsoring organization called SHARE. Twelve years later Seattle became the first major American city to accept the basic tent city operating principles. Ever since, two tent cities have operated under city and local ordinances—and one has operated unsanctioned—each relocating every three months. They are hosted by a rotation of churches.

 
Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, in a 2010 report declared:

 

Tent cities are Americans’ de facto waiting room for affordable and accessible housing. All developed nations have supportive public housing with varying levels of volume and efficacy, but many housing options take months or years to get into.

It is ironic that while US homelessness is increasing, 11% of houses stand empty. Tent cities are a pragmatic, short-term way to widen the safety net for people in danger of losing their homes. If permanent housing for all homeless people becomes unrealistic, the model of transitional housing in organized tent cities could prevent both temporary and absolute homelessness.

 
Many churches like to host tent cities, as it allows them to help the people most in need.

 
Despite high unemployment, many tent city dwellers work day jobs, and some tent cities are based around employment opportunities. In Fresno, CA, for example, Little Tijuana is a predominantly Hispanic tent city comprised of many migrant workers who can’t afford housing or don’t want to take the risk of signing a lease.

 
Portland, Oregon’s Dignity Village is a self-governed, self-funded community founded by homeless people (all of whom have since moved on to permanent housing or elsewhere). In its 13-year life, it has evolved from a traditional tent city into an “eco-village,” with help from local non-profit organizations and community donations. Its houses are made from recycled materials, and amenities include 24-hour security, an organic farm and city-provided waste removal and recycling. This autonomous community remains relatively safe by throwing out residents who bring drugs or alcohol onto the site. Portland police believe that Dignity Village makes their jobs easier.

Seattle Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith concludes:

 

  We have people in this city sleeping outside. That’s reality. So let’s create as many options as we can.

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Humane Exposures | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| March 22, 2013
No comments

Texas Juvenile Justice Reforms Save Public Money and Make Secure Facilities Safer

texas our texas

texas our texas (Photo credit: jmtimages)

Nearly 100,000 children are caught up in Texas’s juvenile justice system each year—many of them suffering from severe trauma, substance abuse and mental health problems. While an increasing number of youth are being diverted to community-based supervision and treatment programs, others continue to be housed in county or state secure facilities.

These institutions are too large and too remote, resulting in staffing problems, low family involvement, high youth-on-youth violence and ineffective rehabilitation. And although county facilities are able to keep youth closer to family and community resources, research shows that for most youth, time spent in any secure facility harms rehabilitation. What’s worse, some kids as young as 14 are still sent to adult facilities.

In recent years, Texas legislators and policymakers have adopted reforms in the criminal justice system that move away from the expensive, marginally effective “lock-‘em-all-up” approach to punishment, toward a more sophisticated, effective one. State juvenile facilities used to be little more than preparatory academies for crime, but that is now changing.

Since shocking revelations in 2007 about mistreatment and sexual abuse of youthful offenders by the staff of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), reforms been implemented that have made juveniles in state secure facilities safer and have reduced the institutions’ average daily population down from 3,642 in 2006 to only 1,221 in 2011.

Jim Hurley, spokesman for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (formerly known as the TYC) reports:

Once insular and defensive, the agency appears now much more willing to listen to outside advice and opinions. The state has provided more training since juvenile justice reforms were implemented and the number and rate of youth-on-youth assaults has decreased at state secure facilities.

A recent survey of 115 detainees at the Giddings State School found that “youthful offenders feel safe and hopeful about their futures.” The interviewees called for even more training for detention facilities staff and moving kids from remote locations so as to enable greater family involvement.

Benet Magnuson, a policy attorney with the Youth Justice Project, explains:

The state is on the right track to keeping juvenile offenders closer to their homes. When kids are in their community and the county has invested in local programs, you’re going to see better outcomes in terms of safety, family involvement, rehabilitation and treatment.

According to the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, county-run secure facilities need grant funds, technical assistance, accountability standards and oversight to develop and effectively implement best practices to strengthen their diversion and treatment infrastructure. The Coalition stresses that all programming and services for juveniles must be age-appropriate and emphasize their unique needs.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Criminal Justice, Juvenile Justice, Texas | Tags: , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »