A response from an MST staffer and parent

As I read Laurie Spivey’s most recent blog post, "Charging Juvenile Offenders as Adults," I have to admit I struggled. I live in an area where a young person committed one of those horrific crimes on school property that put children I care for at risk. This young person’s behaviors put fear in the eyes of friends who grew up together and violated that sacred ground—their safe space. Community temperature ran high.

For me, as someone who is trained in Multisystemic Therapy (MST), who is trained in adolescent brain development and who in my head knows the best answer—the right answers—I struggled. For a moment, I had to really think. “If this were my child being directly victimized, what would I want?” This situation hit so close to home—our children were there—and now, this was a very real question for me and my family.

What price do we pay by charging youths as adults?

Sometimes young people do terrible things. Things that have lasting consequences. Things that require a swift response. Like two Wisconsin girls who were 12 when they were arrested on suspicion of stabbing a classmate 19 times. Though a decision about charging these young people as adults has yet to be made, in the state of Wisconsin, a child as young as 10 can be tried as an adult. Acts like these are terrible and heartbreaking and it leaves lawmakers, court personnel, and the general public feeling like they have to take action. Is charging juvenile offenders as adults really the best answer?

Juvenile Justice Advocates for more Multisystemic Therapy

Twenty-five years ago, the Australian state of Queensland lowered the age a youth is considered an adult from 18 to 17. This flew counter to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, international law and the rest of the country.

Now, Queensland is rethinking this, following an abuse scandal at the Northern Territory’s Don Dale facility that has the country questioning how juvenile offenders are treated.

Long-time MST therapist has suggestions for communities looking for juvenile offender services

When I became an MST therapist more than 16-and-a-half years ago, I met with a county juvenile probation officer to discuss referrals being made to our program. She was a lovely person with a passion for the work she was doing in the juvenile-justice field. As a probation officer, she was responsible for 40 to 50 cases and knew every one of those young people and their families personally. She believed in the Multisystemic Therapy mission of keeping youth at home, in school and out of trouble with the law as keys to their success.

But how to do that successfully for her was still a question to be answered.

Multisystemic Therapy turns anger into motivation

Allen did not like school and therefore, refused to go. No one could make him do anything he didn’t want to do. If they tried, he’d yell, throw things and generally scare them into backing down.

Everyone backed down when Allen showed them who was boss. Mom did. Schoolteachers did. Social workers did. His anger was a very powerful weapon, and he used it as often as he felt necessary to keep people from telling him what to do. 

A simple phone call could change the way you view juvenile justice

I’ve read the reports. I know the statistics. I am acutely familiar with the disparities that permeate the juvenile-justice system.

I’ve read books, too. Books threaded throughout with personal, heartbreaking stories that attempt to bridge the gap between the abstract idea of youth incarceration and the true experience of living through it. And I’ve been touched by those stories. I’ve felt the secondhand pain of the kids and families whose lives were ripped apart by incarceration.

How does one decide which programs best serve children in the juvenile justice system?

Seventy-eight years ago, a group of judges with a mission to improve the effectiveness of juvenile courts in this country created the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). Now in its 79th year, the NCJFCJ held its annual conference in Monterey Bay, Calif. Multisystemic Therapy (MST)  was there an exhibitor. With sessions like “Smart on Juvenile Justice,” “Rerouting the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” “Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court” and “Addressing School Pushout Among Black Girls,” the conference subject matter really resonated with MST’s mission and goals.Sophie Karpf, Judge Ramona Gonzalez, and Judge Steven Teske

What does it take to be an award-winning MST therapist?

It takes a special type of person to be an MST therapist. Requirements? Supreme empathy. Intuitiveness. The sleuthing power of Sherlock Holmes to uncover the mysteries of why a youth is acting out. Diplomatic skills to get an entire family—and even the extended community—on board with the program.

Three parents can sometimes be better than one

Jane was a 13-year-old middle-schooler who lived with her grandparents, having little to no contact with her biological parents. By the time she came into MST, she was using drugs, getting in trouble, failing in school, leaving home without permission, and being defiant and aggressive with her grandparents. 

The Proportion of Girls Arrested for Drug Crimes Is Higher Than Males

There has been some good news and statistics in the juvenile-justice world recently. One is that juvenile-drug arrests fell to about 52% since 2010. However, examining this data more closely finds something disturbing: girls now account for a larger percentage of drug charges, ranging from simple possession to manufacturing and sales, than their male counterparts. Also worrisome is, writes Jeffrey A. Butts of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in a recent brief, “the growing proportion of females among juvenile drug arrests was seen among arrests for drug manufacturing and sales as well as arrests for simple drug possession.”