How being white and privileged kept me out of the juvenile justice system

I’m new to a lot of things. Knitting, crossword puzzles, adult-ing, just to name a few. But most importantly, I’m new to my job at MST Services. Before working here, I could not have told you much about the juvenile-justice system. Now, by virtue of the research I now do, I can tell you a lot. Interestingly, not only have I learned a lot about the topic, I have learned a lot about myself. 

This is not going to be me gushing about how my life has improved since coming to MST. (Even though it has). This is going to be me speaking about the harsh realizations and self-awareness I’ve come to have, most of which I think are equal parts pertinent and relevant to my peers, as well.

My friends and me, senior year of high school

Pennsylvania family ready to give up on 14-year-old Son

I first met Anthony at his Inter-Agency Service Planning Team (ISPT) meeting. Sitting at the head of the table wearing an ankle bracelet and a big smile on his face, he told me he was ready to go home. He had been in two juvenile placements and was finishing up a stay at a drug-rehabilitation center. 

During the meeting, his parents acknowledged they were at their wit's end. They had supported sending their son away three times, and nothing seemed to change. In fact, I learned that before Anthony went into placement the last time, mom told the public defender that she didn't feel that she could keep him safe. She shared that made her feel like a bad mother, but at that time, she really believed placement was her only choice. Now they were ready to do whatever it took to keep Anthony home. They talked about their willingness to sleep on the living-room floor, guarding the house, so that he couldn’t leave and his older, anti-social peers couldn’t come in.

If you want a successful EBP, don’t improvise

Congratulations. You have made the choice to implement evidence-based programs (EBP) in your community. It’s a wise and fiscally responsible choice since only EBPs deliver proven and predictable outcomes.

But here’s the rub: To get these results, it’s critical to implement the program with fidelity. Too often, “fidelity” might be seen an overrated and undervalued expense. Sure, sticking to rules and guidelines developed somewhere far away, typically in some university petri dish, is hard. 

Finding their way back: How MST helped one Canadian family reconnect

In the months following a difficult divorce, Bonnie felt she was losing her footing as a parent. With two teenaged girls and a host of new responsibilities as a single mom, Bonnie struggled as she navigated unfamiliar terrain. She thought her life was turning upside down, and her youngest daughter, Anna, was struggling most of all. At 13, Anna was starting her first year of high school and was forging a new identity with new friends. This identity was not positive. Her experimentation with drugs and alcohol developed into a pattern of daily use, and she was absent from school frequently. Anna was also increasingly adversarial and defiant at home. She flagrantly disregarded rules, had angry outbursts and stole from her mom and sister. All the while, Anna grew more and more distant from her mother. Bonnie feared for her daughter’s future and turned to Multisystemic Therapy (MST) for help.

Kansas governor signs overhaul of juvenile justice system into law

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has been hounded by naysayers over his fiscal policies.

Now, with a simple swoosh of his pen, Brownback is being praised for being both fiscally-responsible and improving outcomes for the youth involved in the state’s juvenile justice system. On April 11, he signed into law a bill that puts more emphasis on treatment rather than detention.

“Being smart on crime promotes public safety and the rehabilitation of youthful offenders so that they can become law-abiding citizens,” the governor said. “This bill does just that. The legislation aligns our juvenile-justice system with what the research shows works best to reduce victimization, keep families strong and guide youth towards a better path.”

Backers say the law will lower the number of kids locked up or placed out of the home. Low-level offenders will be afforded educational, vocational and therapy programs. And juveniles with drug and alcohol problems will get treatment. 

This Mother's Day, we are releasing an e-book to celebrate all the moms out there doing their best

Oprah Winfrey once said, “Moms have the toughest job in the world, if they are doing it right.” What exactly is right? 

For their sake and ours, we need to stop locking up kids

A talk at the recent Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development conference in Denver made me think of a show I love, “The West Wing.” In one of my favorite episodes, after hearing of the death of a secret-service agent, a politician wonders out loud, “Crime. Boy, I don’t know.”

We all want to live in safe communities, free of crime. As a parent, this feels like an increasingly urgent need as I send my children more and more out into public without me. Levels of risk I was willing to accept in the past are now too scary to tolerate. Before, I have ignored the news of local crime, and now, there are times I have to force myself to stop thinking about it. 

So, I join the public in the wish for a silver bullet. We want safety. We want something to guarantee it. Crime. Boy, I don’t know. What are we going to do?

Evidence-based intervention keeps girl at home

Everyone was afraid that the young person would have to be taken into care. Chloe was not attending school. She was using drugs and staying out all night. Recently, she had ended up in the hospital after a night of drinking and drugs. Her caregiver was at her wit's end. But as luck would have it, she and Chloe were about to be referred to a brand-new program in their community—Multisystemic Therapy (MST).

When an MST program begins, it can take some time before anybody notices just how hard everyone is working to help young people and their families. For this young MST team and this family, the opportunity came sooner than most. 

At Blueprints, Del Elliot wonders aloud what is happening to the term evidence-based

In this year’s closing plenary session of the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development conference, keynote speaker and Blueprints founder, Delbert Elliott, asked us whether we can we rescue the concept of evidence based. While more and more systems across the nation and world have embraced the use of evidence-based programs for the treatment of antisocial behaviors, the term itself has undergone a transformation. 

Using MST and tech-savvy to stop a 14-year-old’s criminal enterprise

Danny was referred to Multisystemic Therapy (MST) for stealing, truancy and verbal aggression at home. The treatment addressed all these problems. One, in particular, took some creative thinking.

At 14, Danny was quite the entrepreneur. Very clever at buying low and selling high, he had a business going where he sold electronics, clothes and high-end sneakers to his friends, to friends of friends and to people out of town who were nobody’s friends. He used online platforms to pay his customers and to get paid.