Senate Hearing on Juvenile Code

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The Senate Judiciary Committee will discuss the juvenile code rewrite bill SB 292, Article 6 next Monday at 2 pm in room 450 at the Capitol.  Article 6 is controversial because it deals with Children in Need of Services (CHIN’s).  These kids are considered status offenders under Georgia law.  Currently, they are treated the same as delinquent kids.  Article 6 would provide status offenders with family oriented services geared toward fixing their problems.  Some of the agencies expected to attend include the Truancy Intervention Project, the Office of Child Advocacy and the Department of Behavioral Health. Attorney Julia Neighbors from Just Georgia wrote a passionate argument for Article 6:

“Current research and best practices now suggest that youth and families in crisis require a faster response than courts can offer and that juvenile justice systems are often ill-equipped to provide the services these youth and families need. ”

For more on SB 292:

Long Road to Juvenile Code

SB 292: Rethinking 17 vs. 18

Other Bills Regarding Juveniles

Wanted: Insights on Trauma and Delinquency

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Exposure to trauma, delinquency and school failure are related, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).  More than sixty percent of children have witnessed violence and 46.3 percent have experienced physical assault.

If you have direct experience with kids who’ve gone through traumatic experiences, you may want to join the online forum called "Chronic Trauma and the Teen Brain". Benjamin Chambers writes that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is collecting information and data.  If you can answer the following question, this forum is for you:

“Where are there opportunities within these adolescent systems to better identify, assess and intervene to support the needs and healthy development of young people affected by chronic trauma?”

For more information:

Chronic Trauma and the Teen Brain - An Online Forum

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Real Gun, Fake Gun, Doesn’t Matter!

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So you’re 16 years old and broke. And you’re sitting around brainstorming ways to get money. On a whim you decide to stick up the convenience store around the corner. You don’t want to hurt anyone; you just want the dough. To be sure you’ll even use a fake gun.

Normer Adams: Engaged to Learn

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More than 40% of Georgia's students are absent from school each year for six or more days; 8.7% are absent more than 15 days.  Foster children do appreciably better than students in the general population do.  Only about 30% of all foster children miss six or more days from school. Students cannot learn unless they are in class.  They have to be present and they have to be engaged.  Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, speaks to this problem with American education and culture.  He proposes that Asians do better than Americans do academically, not because of some innate intelligence, but purely because they go to school more.  American children spend 180 days in school versus the 280 days that Asian students spend.  He says, “For its poorest students, America doesn’t have a school problem; it has a summer-vacation problem.” Does Georgia want to close the gap between rich and poor students? If so, get rid of summer vacation in its poorest school districts. The same postulate can be made with chronic absences.  A child who is absent from school cannot learn.  Absences reflect other fundamental problems faced by the student: the quality of the school, the stability of the family, the lack of transportation, the lack of health care, the unavailability of childcare and a parent who may be working long hours, for low pay and little flexibility.  Absences speak to whether or not we are meeting the needs of a child and supporting the family. Gladwell was not off the mark with his assessment.  Research shows that absences matter because they adversely affect academic success in the future.  There is a direct correlation between the number of days absent and performance in math and reading in the later grades.   Absence is linked with juvenile crime.  One Colorado study found that 90% of detained juveniles had a history of school absences; 80% of those who were high school dropouts were excessively absent.

DMC and DSO are Priorities for GA

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Disproportionate minority contact and detention of status offenders are the core issues for Georgia’s juvenile justice system, according to Joseph Vignati, Justice Programs Coordinator at the Governor’s Office for Children and Families.  Vignati will testify at a hearing on reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in Washington D.C. this week.  He speaks with a loud voice, because he’s also the National Juvenile Justice Specialist for the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, representing 56 states and territories. Vignati says the JJDP Act requires states to focus on four core issues:

Removing juvenile offenders from adult jails
Separating juveniles from adults if they are held in the same lockup
Disproportionate minority contact
Minimizing the detention of status offenders

He believes the first two issues are less significant now than they were 20 years ago, because Georgia and other states have laws against housing children with adults, and separate detention centers for kids.  Vignati points out, “In FY 2009 we had only 23 juveniles locked up as adults across the state, and 20 of them lied about their age.

When Juvie is a Haven

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Some young people would rather serve time in juvenile detention than be out on the street in their own neighborhood.  An insightful column in the Boston Globe spells out why:

“For some, juvenile detention is very much like summer camp — most people hate being shipped off, some never get adjusted, but after a while it’s not as bad as it seems. Good behavior is rewarded, and detainees can earn take-out, movie, and video game rights. Still, that is not what makes detention appealing. For some, it is the certainty that they will see another day…None of them liked juvenile detention, but they preferred it to facing death.”

Read the rest at Boston.com

Family Group Targets Unruly Kids

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Floyd County has a program that is keeping runaways, truants and children caught up in other status offenses out of juvenile court.  The Parent and Family Support Group targets entire families.  The Rome News-Tribune is profiling the program in a series of stories. The Support Group was started by former Juvenile Court Probation Officer April Thomas. The group helps children like 13 year old Arianna Creamer, who was hitting and talking back to her mother, Julianne.  Julianne turned to Juvenile Court for help. Judge Timothy Pape tells the newspaper he tries to keep unruly kids from hurting themselves without treating them like criminals.

Children Fighting Deportation

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Raphael was just seven years old when his mother brought him from Mexico to Gainesville, Georgia for a good education and better opportunities.  But by the time he was 16 his mother was arrested for drugs and deported. He dropped out of school and was working in a factory to support himself and his sister. Because he was brought here illegally, he constantly faced the threat of deportation to a country he knew only as a little boy. Now his mother’s dream for her children is about to be fulfilled. The Division of Family and Children Services learned of his situation and he was referred to Catholic Charities for legal help.

Restorative Justice at Work

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Teen lawbreakers are benefiting from a restorative justice program, required by law in Northern Ireland.  Dr. Graham Ellison, a criminologist, told Here and Now on Public Radio International how the program is working. Courts in Northern Ireland must provide kids with a restorative justice option through the Youth Conferencing Service as an alternative to prison, Dr. Ellison explained. According to the Youth Conferencing Service, kids meet with their victims, make amends and get any treatment they need. A teen graduate of the program, who stole a car, spoke to the BBC about meeting his victim. "All she done was cry, and talked about how she doesn't feel safe in her home," he said.

Drug Abuse and Mental Health

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85% of children treated for substance abuse also have mental health problems. The Child Welfare League of America reports this is a growing problem across the country.  In addition, 23.1 million people age 12 or older needed treatment for drugs or alcohol in 2008.  But only 9.9% of them got help at a specialty facility.