Here's several useful tools and resources on best practices in juvenile justice, mental health, substance abuse treatment, and juvenile brain research:
- A brief but useful overview of best practices in juvenile justice from The Future of Children, covering model programs in prevention, community-based interventions, and institutional settings. Aimed at state-wide reform. (This link courtesy of Youth Today.)
- An excellent guide to using adolescent brain research to advocate for juvenile justice reform from the National Juvenile Justice Network (courtesy of Free Efren).
- We can do better at identifying and treating youth in the justice system with mental health issues, according to this blueprint for change compiled by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice. Reclaiming Futures sites will closely identify with the blueprint's "Cornerstones": Collaboration, Identification, Diversion, and Treatment. Check out the model's principles, too - they're great.
- Still wondering how to implement Balanced and Restorative Justice? Fear not. The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) compiled separate guides to implementation for defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, detention staff, probation officers, law enforcement, and juvenile corrections officers. (Just for grins, check out the ICJIA's 32-foot-tall balloon of McGruff the Crime Dog.)
- The creators of Motivational Interviewing, William Miller and Stephen Rollnick, published an article in February 2009 on "10 Things That Motivational Interviewing Is Not." [I can only link to the abstract, I'm afraid, but the full text can be downloaded for a fee.]
http://blog.reclaimingfutures.org/?q=juvenile_justice_resources