Identifying an individual solution for each family

"I don't know what to do with her anymore." Ms. Martinez and I sat knee to knee on her black vinyl couch. "Maybe she would be better off living somewhere else. A place where she has lots of rules."

Ms. Martinez's words may have seemed callous but sending her daughter away appeared to be the only viable option to keep her safe. I placed my clipboard on the seat next to me and looked at her face. "I know how overwhelming this all seems right now. We know Gabriela is using drugs, not going to school, and maybe involved in a gang. Sending her away might make some problems go away temporarily but what will happen when she comes home to the same environment? I think we have a better chance of helping Gabriela by looking at all the pieces of the puzzle." 

Adolescents are easily influenced. No surprise there. Sometimes that means regrettable decisions like nose piercing and getting a tattoo. But when your brother or sister gets in trouble with the law, has friends who are violent and incorrigible, the influences are more serious, possibly leading to juvenile detention and prison. 

If it weren't in the Washington Post, you might not believe it. For the school year (SY) 2012-2013, 180 DC students in pre-kindergarten were suspended. Pre-kindergarten, kids aged 30 months to 5 years. And what could they possibly have done to merit being kicked out of class? Try tantrums, vulgarity and yes, bathroom accidents.

An Independent council member in the District of Columbia, David Grosso wants to put an end to this "ridiculous policy" and has introduced legislation to ban the suspension and expulsion of pre-kindergarten children in the District of Columbia. In addition to legislation, here's a better way to manage children in the classroom.

My youngest nephew, Dylan, started kindergarten in SY 2013-2014. After his first few days of school, he told my husband Bill and me about kindergarten and explained some of the classroom behavior management strategies. “If you do something good, you get a Popsicle stick. After you get 10 Popsicle sticks, you can trade them in for a prize.  Guess what one of the prizes is? You can take off your shoes in the classroom!” When Bill asked, “Is that what you’re saving your sticks for?” Dylan answered with a “Yes!” that was pure enthusiasm. 

I knocked on a family’s door. The mother answered, simultaneously shoving the dog aside with her foot and pushing a stack of papers into my hands. Her hair looked rumpled and she wore the same blue t-shirt from the day before.  

“Miss  Longo, the system is broken!” she shouted up at me. I looked at the papers and noted her welfare case had been closed again. The family’s entitlements would be suspended until she endured another full-day battle just to begin the process of reapplication. I could feel her looking at me expectantly. My eyes met hers and I raised one side of my mouth in shared disappointment. “Frustrating,” I said. “I wish you didn’t have to go through the whole process again.”

The cable network A&E has been running a popular series for six seasons called “Scared Straight.” It purports to show a forceful way of handling juvenile offenders by taking them to a correctional facility and having inmates intimidate them with threats of what will happen if the kids end up in prison. And of course, the next episode features a sobbing or sobered delinquent declaring he or she will straighten up.

It’s a feel-good for the audience. Such a simple way to straighten out these young miscreants. The only problem, it’s Hollywood nonsense, as Del Elliott, the director of the program on Problem Behavior and Positive Youth Development and the founding director of The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence in the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) at the University of Colorado recently pointed out.

Highlights of the 2014 MST European Conference are in. Over 450 participants attended the two-day event hosted at the beautiful Central Hall Westminster, London, England.  MST Therapists, Supervisors, Program Managers, Researchers, Policy Makers, and Experts gathered from across Europe to celebrate the implementation of the MST model.  Keynote speakers included: Professor Peter Fonagy (Chief Investigator, START Research Trial, University College, London) Edward Timpson MP (Minister for Children, Department of Education, UK), and Professor Sonja Schoenwald (Professor Family Services Research Center, Charleston, South Carolina).

Evidence-based practice, evidence-informed practice, practice-based evidence . . . to the average Joe, these all sound so much the same that most folks just quit listening and do what is easiest. I am referring to how communities decide which services we deliver to children and families and how they determine whether something actually works, or more importantly, does not. If the information was clear and better options available, wouldn’t most people choose what works and stop choosing what does not? Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. 

Full disclosure first. I work for one of the top evidence-based practices in the United States (and 14 other countries)—Multisystemic Therapy (MST). Some might ask, doesn’t that skew my perceptions? To which I would answer, maybe, but it also gives me an inside look at the problems and solutions offered by these treatments. I see a close-up of their efficacy. I see their work. And that’s what this article is all about.

What do you do when your 16-year-old is disrespectful, aggressive, drinks, disregards curfews, and hangs around with peers who are bad influences? In other words, his life is in a downward spiral toward prison.  (The first names were changed to protect the family's privacy.)

Pablo’s mother, Maria, didn’t have the answer. The Hispanic family living in rural South Carolina had always been close-knit. But since her husband left and her fiancé moved in, Pablo’s behavior had deteriorated.

After a particularly volatile incident, the boy had to be removed from the home. 

In 2010, the state of Kentucky had 852 youths in confinement, a rate of 186 per 100,000. While this number may not seem very large, David Keene, a former president of the National Rifle Association, a former chairman of the American Conservative Union and a Right on Crime signatory, appropriately gasped at the cost of $87,000 a year per youth which, using these numbers, equates to $74,124,000 a year. Read Keene's OpEd here. More concerning than just the money is the mounds of data demonstrating that the result of this expense is likely to be increased recidivism and expanding costs.

One and a half million young people are arrested each year in the United States, 89 percent of those are for non-violent crimes.  Many of these young people arrested, even those non-violent offenders, receive custodial or residential sentences.  In other words, they are taken away from their families, schools, friends, and community and placed in a locked facility.

Think about it, in dollars and cents.  Each year, the United States spends $10,500 per child on education. We spend on average, eight times that amount on each youth incarcerated, or approximately $88,000 per child. What does this say about our priorities? Incarceration is more important than education?