Social Host Ordinance May Hold Parents Accountable for Teen Drinking

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If a young person under 21 drinks on your property, you could be legally responsible even if you didn’t provide the alcohol under a new social host ordinance proposed by the Cobb Alcohol Taskforce. The Taskforce is making a presentation at the Cobb Municipal Association meeting on October 12 to propose that jurisdictions adopt social host ordinances. They hope to target Cobb County and six cities including Acworth, Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs, and Smyrna. “The community has been pretty good about holding kids fairly accountable for underage drinking,” said Cathy Fink, the Cobb Alcohol Taskforce coordinator. “Private parties are the primary source of underage drinking and the community is having trouble holding adults accountable for providing places for minors to drink.”

Under current law, police can charge underage drinkers with possession or consumption of alcohol and an adult can be charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor.

Expungement Forum: “Is There a Real Second Chance in Georgia?”

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PRESS RELEASE

Expungement Forum: “Is There a Real Second Chance in Georgia?”

WHAT: This year approximately 400,000 Georgians will be arrested for a criminal offense. A number of these cases will notresult in convictions. However, these Georgians will still face substantial barriers that restrict their access to employment,housing, education and other basic benefits of citizenship. The Georgia Justice Project, Georgia STAND-UP, Georgia Black United Fund, The Atlanta North Georgia Labor Council and United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta are co-sponsoring a forum on criminal records and the collateral consequences thereof. “Is There a Real Second Chance in Georgia?” is a daylong event that will further the discussion on ways to address the needs of Georgians with arrest records and opportunities for assistance.

Expunging Your Record: How-To Forum

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An estimated 400,000 Georgians will be arrested for a criminal offense this year, according to the Georgia Justice Project. Some of these people will never be convicted, but their arrest record could make it hard for them to get a job, rent an apartment, get into school, etc. The Georgia Justice Project is hosting a forum called “Is There A Real Second Chance in Georgia?” on October 9. It’s a day long event to help people get their records expunged and/or corrected. Religious leaders and elected officials, including Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, will be there.

Poll Shows People Believe That Kids Can Be Rehabilitated

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Georgia has some of the toughest juvenile crime laws in the nation that focus more on punishment than rehabilitation. A new report suggests that the public may have different attitudes.  Some highlights:

People believe rehabilitation and treatment can reduce crime AND are willing to pay extra taxes to provide those services;
They support rehabilitation even for young people who commit violent crimes;
They oppose young offenders being sent to adult criminal court without an individual determination made in each case;
They agree that non-white youth are more likely than white youth to be prosecuted as adults; and
believe strongly in a separate juvenile justice system. These findings are from the National Juvenile Justice Network’s recently updated “Polling on Public Attitudes About the Treatment of Young Offenders.” The information was collected between 2005 and 20007 and the document also looks back at public attitudes during the 1990’s. To read the full document, click here.

How Social Media Can Help or Hurt in Court

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Teens have been warned that what they post on Facebook, Myspace and other social websites can affect their chances at getting into college or landing a job. Now, judges and attorneys are using these online profiles in court, which could hurt or help. Criminal defense lawyers sometimes consider reviewing social pages as important as reviewing medical and school records and other background information, according to the New York Law Journal. Teens often post pictures of their wild exploits and share information through posts and comments. This kind of personal disclosure can undermine statements they make in court and lead to a longer sentence.

Cost Savings Drive Increased Use of Ankle Braceletsed

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Communities are turning to electronic monitoring and GPS tracking as an alterative to jailing kids. Georgia’s Department of Juvenile Justice has been using these alternatives for years, according to Scheree Moore, the department’s director of communications

Moore calls it an alternative to incarcerating youth and another way to help them. She adds that wraparound programs go with this kind of monitoring, such as in-home counseling and sending a behavior specialist to school with a child. Georgia uses two kinds of ankle bracelets: electronic monitors and GPS. Electronic monitoring tells where the child is and if he or she is out of bounds.

Flood of LWOP Cases Under Review

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The Supreme Court decision to ban life-without-parole sentences for juveniles who didn’t kill anyone has turned Florida’s legal system upside down, according to the Miami Herald. The Graham decision echoes the idea that because a teen’s brain is not fully developed, he or she deserves a chance to change. More than 100 cases in the state of Florida are eligible for resentencing, but the courts are struggling to figure out an alternative sentence to life without parole. Some state officials feel that certain prisoners have no chance of changing and will only reoffend if released on parole. Others feel this decision could force prisons to focus more on rehabilitation, especially for juvenile offenders, and lead to less recidivism.

Welfare Watch – GA Conference on Children and Families

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Welfare Watch - September 23, 2010 - Georgia Conference on Children and Families

The Georgia Conference on Children and Families (GCCF) comes at a most appropriate time.  Georgia's way of caring for its at-risk children in its child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health and developmental disabilities systems is rapidly changing. It is a time of sometimes overwhelming rapid change with new paradigms of thinking and acting. This economic crisis is causing both public and private agencies to identify their core activities.  Data is becoming increasing important as it drives all direct services to evidence based practices.  Family and community are important players in the system that once only had the "experts"  at the table.  The panacea of programs has been replaced with systems of care that includes all aspects of the child's life. This Conference serves the needs of stakeholders in child welfare to understand this change and even to embrace it. Just as Georgia is being seen as one of the leading states in the nation in child welfare work, stakeholders are struggling to keep up.

Cobb Alcohol Taskforce Seeks Youth to Participate in Summit

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Cobb Alcohol Taskforce to Hold Youth Council Summit Hosted by The Walker School –

Seeking 100 Cobb County Youth to Participate

September 23, 2010, Marietta, GA – Cobb Alcohol Taskforce will hold a Youth Council Summit at The Walker School on October 23, 2010. The event will be a day full of fun with interactive activities led by youth delegates of the Cobb Alcohol Taskforce Youth Council – Take It Back chapter. Youth facilitated workshops will focus on giving youth a voice that will shake up adult attitudes and beliefs about underage and youth binge drinking. Summit attendees will receive branded t-shirts and drawstring bags; beeligible for drawings for gift cards; receive community service learning and hours; and receive community recognition for participation in a project aimed at making a difference in underage and youth binge drinking. Cobb County middle and high school aged youth who represent an existing school or community youth group are invited to register to attend this free event.

“Beaten, Manipulated and Sold All Day Everyday”

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The issue of child sex trafficking is becoming more pointed as new research comes out about the vastness of the problem. A heart-wrenching interview with a survivor of child trafficking came out during testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee last week:
When I was 12 years old, a guy I thought was just a “dope [cool] boy” kept following me in his car when I walked to school…eventually I got in the car with him. For a while we were girlfriend and boyfriend; we would go everywhere together. It didn’t take long before I experienced the real treatment— being beaten, stomped on, manipulated and sold all day every day. Shared Hope International, a non-profit committed to globally preventing and eradicating sex trafficking and slavery, testified to the Committee about the problem of child trafficking in the U.S.

Linda Smith, Founder and President, represented the organization and focused on the current issues in domestic child trafficking response.