A conference on evidence-based programs

"The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate." —Joseph Priestley

Emails are great. Phone calls good. Face-to-face communication, best.

The back-and-forth, give-and take exchanges of ideas and experiences lead to new insights, expanded knowledge, immediate clarifications and solidification of personal connections.  

This makes the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development Conference in April 2016 such an important event for those working to improve the well-being of children. 

Girls are different from boys—an obvious statement that isn’t so obvious in much of the juvenile-justice system. In the past, girls historically made up a smaller percentage of the juvenile justice system. However, the number of girls entering the justice system is on the rise.

As pointed out in an exhaustive report by Francine T. Sherman Annie Balck¹ (in partnership with the National Crittenton Foundation and the National Women’s Law Center), there is an inequality of treatment often from the get-go. Judges find abused young women from traumatic backgrounds in front of them and will put them into the system to “protect” them.

At all points, starting with arrest and going through disposition, the authors of the report said, “The system is structured to pull girls in, rather than to use available ‘off-ramps’ to divert them to more appropriate interventions.”

 Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child

Nov. 20 is Universal Children’s Day, established by the United Nations more than 60 years ago. Its goal is to improve the welfare of kids across the globe. They are, after all, of utmost importance to the future of the world. As pointed out in a report to the U.N. secretary-general in 2001, "We were all children once. And we all share the desire for the well-being of our children, which has always been and will continue to be the most universally cherished aspiration of humankind."

Many people and cultures throughout the world condone using corporal punishment to discipline children. This flies in the face of the principles of the U.N. and its Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children are not commodities. They are not punching bags. Swatting, spanking, hitting your kid is a form of physical abuse that research has shown does not necessarily achieve the desired results. On the contrary, it is deleterious.

October is Youth Justice Awareness Month. YJAM brings awareness to systemic racial inequality 

In his proclamation naming October 2015 Youth Justice Awareness Month, President Obama said, “Nearly 55,000 individuals under age 21 are being held in juvenile justice facilities across the United States—a disproportionate number of whom are young people of color, including tribal youth. The proportion of detained and incarcerated girls and young women, often victims of abuse, has also significantly increased over the past few decades.”

When you look at the statistics, the racial disparity between which kids end up in jail and which do not is startling.

Lobbying continues for passage of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act

The message is clear. More than 1,100 law-enforcement officials from police chiefs to prosecutors are pushing to keep juvenile offenders out of lockups and into family interventions with proven track records of helping troubled youths. One program they cite is Multisystemic Therapy, MST.

The officials were represented yesterday in front of Congress by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, which is lobbying to get the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) reauthorized. A Fight Crime report, “Never is Better, But Once is Enough,” calls the JJDPA a juvenile-justice "game-changer.” The report provides evidence that repeats offending could be reduced by 50 percent, with a saving of $9,000 and $27,000 per youth. Compare that to the average $88,000 a year for keeping a delinquent locked up.

What stops high-risk juveniles from further crime?

A report from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention based on the “Pathways to Desistance” project offered up a serious look at what deters high-risk kids from committing future crimes.

More than 1,300 delinquents from Philadelphia and Phoenix were interviewed seven years after they were convicted. They were asked about the factors—becoming more mature, life changes, and whether they were involved again with the criminal-justice system—that led youth who have committed serious offenses to continue or stop offending.

Money earmaked for Evidence-Based Practices

It was only last June that South Dakota initiated a study on how to reduce the juvenile-incarceration rate. It was costing $140,000 a year for each youth commitment. Annual tuition at the University of South Dakota is only $13,904. And the returns on the commitment investment were not good. Forty percent of the adolescents were back with the Department of Corrections (DOC) three years after they were released.

5^th time’s the charm with support from both sides of the aisle

You might think that after introducing a bill four times over the course of eight years, its sponsor would give up. Not so for Rep. Bobby Scott. The Democrat from Virginia has reintroduced the Youth Promise Act for the fifth time. After previously not reaching the House floor for a vote, the prospects for it being passed look good.

Michigan can reduce its $2-billion state prison budget partly by diverting juvenile offenders to treatment.

When Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder decided to present his ambitious plan for justice reform, he chose Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, which makes it a practice to hire former convicts, as his setting. He also chose to have representatives from the Livingston County juvenile court and a Multisystemic Therapy (MST) supervisor from Highfields, Inc. in attendance. Snyder’s staff learned of the court’s success in implementing programs that help kids, programs that save money.

The cost of not using evidence-based programs for troubled youths is high

Proponents of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and other evidence-based programs say it over and over. Give young people experiencing difficulties the right intervention and you save society enormous amounts of money by keeping them home, out of jail, and turning them into productive citizens.

Fifty British charities have weighed in on the subject. They estimate that a failure to intervene early leads to crises more costly to fix later. More costly? How about $2 billion more costly.