50 Cent Aims to Help Kids with New Anti-bullying Book

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Gangsta rapper 50 Cent is best known for being “In Da Club” but his new young adult novel takes him to an unlikely place: the playground.  The semi-autobiographical book, titled “Playground,” explores what happens when a 13-year-old bully must face the consequences of his actions. The novel arrives in the midst of a growing debate about the dangers of bullying in an age where, thanks to social websites such as Facebook, kids often can’t escape the abuse. Drawing on his own experiences as a teenage bully, 50 Cent hopes the novel will  “have a positive influence on all teenagers,” according to a statement released this week.  A similar book would have been helpful to him growing up, he said. The novel will be published in January by Razorbill Books and follows two previous books by 50 Cent—the 2005 memoir about his days as a crack dealer, “From Pieces of Weight,” and the 2008 follow-up, “The 50th Law.”

 

Grant Helps Prevent Kids From Going to Jail

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The U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of Justice Programs and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention offers the Title V Community Prevention Grant. This grant provides support for local communities to lower risk factors for juvenile delinquency. It also helps to prevent at-risk kids from entering the juvenile justice system. The deadline for this grant is July 5, 2011 at 8 P.M. E.S.T.

 

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John Lash On Restorative Justice, Youth and Adult Prisons

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In 1985, at the age of 18, I was sentenced to life in prison for murder. I was sent to Georgia Industrial Institute, commonly known as Alto, after the nearby town. Throughout the system at that time Alto had a reputation for violence. Though I was tried and convicted as an adult, this prison was designed for “youthful offenders.” Only a handful of prisoners were over the age of 22, and many had arrived there at ages 14 – 17. During 25 years of incarceration, I never again lived at a prison with the same levels of assault, robbery and rape.

Florida County to Detain Kids in Adult Jail

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Central Florida’s Polk County has become the first jurisdiction in that state to make plans under a new state law to house juveniles who are awaiting trial in adult jail rather than in a state juvenile detention center, according to NewsChief.com, a Winter Haven, Fla., news site. That change was made possible because Polk Sheriff Grady Judd pushed state Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, to sponsor a bill in this year’s Florida Legislature that loosens the standards county jails must meet to house juveniles. The state currently charges counties $237 per day to hold each juvenile in pretrial detention, and that rate is expected to rise later this year. Judd told NewsChief.com that the county expects to spend $70-$90 per day per juvenile detainee. He predicts the switch will save the county around $1.5 million.

LGBT Youth More Likely to Experience Abuse and Bullying, Says New Study

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Young people who self-identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual are more likely to experience bullying, sexual abuse and parental physical abuse, according to a new study by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.  As a result, LGBT youth are also more likely to miss school. Study co-author Mark S. Friedman, Ph.D., told ScienceDaily that this abuse is one of the underlying reasons for higher rates of mental illness among LGBT youth. "However,” Friedman said, “I cannot stress enough that these youth experience sexual and physical abuse and bullying because they identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual or experience same-sex attraction; abuse does not 'cause' sexual orientation or identification." A number of studies had previously been conducted on this topic but were limited in size.  Friedman and co-authors conducted a meta-analysis of the previous data that provided more accurate results.

Benjamin Chambers Interviews Dr. Jeffrey Butts on Positive Youth Development

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Positive youth development is a key part of Reclaiming Futures. But what the heck is "positive youth development?" According to juvenile justice researcher Dr. Jeffrey Butts, it blends what we know about adolescent development and what we know about effective services. But don't take it from me -- here's a brief interview on the subject that I did with Dr. Butts at the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute held in Miami in May:

The above story is reprinted with permission from Reclaiming Futures, a national initiative working to improve alcohol and drug treatment outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system.

Russia Plagued by Flesh-Rotting Heroin Alternative

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In Russia, a nation with more heroin users than any other in the world, addicts are finding a new, even more devastating way to get high.   The drug is desomorphine, a synthetic opiate, but users know it as krokodil, or “crocodile,” because the skin at the injection site turns scaly, grey and reptilian as the surrounding tissue dies. Krokodil is derived from codeine (available over-the-counter in Russia) and freely available household products and it costs a fraction of what true heroin would cost.  Although the price in rubles may be low, the physical cost is tremendous.  Desomorphine is essentially poison and addicts soon find their skin dying and falling away leaving exposed bone.  Sores grow over their bodies or they develop abscesses where the needle misses a vein. Already, 30,000 Russians die each year from heroin overdoses, according to The Independent, but now as many as 100,000 Russians are addicted to krokodil and other homemade drugs.  Desomorphine is highly addictive with terrible withdrawal symptoms lasting up to a month. In the poorest parts of Russia where heroin is scarce, krokodil is gaining a strong foothold, due in large part tothe availability of codeine tablets over the counter in the Russian pharmacies.  Addicts create the desomorphine by “cooking,” a process that can take up to half-an-hour.  Unlike heroin, however, the high is of a shorter duration.  Addicts soon find themselves entrenched in a nearly unstoppable cycle of “cooking” and getting high.

Lisa Thurau: Why Police Need to Understand Trauma

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The girl is maybe 15 years old? She is standing in the back of a building, or maybe it’s an alley way.  She has her arms wrapped around her body and her teeth are chattering.  When the officer approaches and tells her to leave the alley way she shakes her head and refuses.  The officer moves in closer and reiterates his order to leave. Suddenly the girl is lunging at him, screaming, “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! Get away from me!”  She is pushing her hands out at him, then pointing her finger at the officer, ordering him to keep his distance.

Suicide: A Preventable Epidemic in Young Adults

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Teenagers and college students live in tumultuous times. Physical changes, high school graduation, going off to college, moving away from the parents — all of these things can cause personality and mood changes in young adults. So how does one know the difference between “normal” bouts of depression, sadness and erratic behavior, and what could potentially be a red flag for suicidal tendencies? Every 15 minutes (about the amount of time that it takes to down a cup of coffee) one person will commit suicide, according to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Many of these deaths could have been prevented by intervention from those close to the victims, but often the warning signs were ignored because the subject is awkward, according to Mary Ann Camann, PhD, an associate professor at the WellStar School of Nursing at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta.

Flogging is “Unsettling” but Better Than Prison, Says Criminal Justice Expert

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At first glance, flogging appears to be an archaic, cruel punishment too reminiscent of the Dark Ages.  But former police officer and current criminal justice professor Peter Moskos thinks flogging could be one solution to many of the problems facing the criminal justice system — problems such as overcrowding.  Moskos’ new book, In Defense of Flogging, lays out his argument. In an interview with Salon.com, Moskos said he thinks when compared to prison, flogging is “the lesser of two evils.”

“Taking away a significant chunk of someone’s life is far worse than any punishment that is virtually instantaneous,” he told Salon.  “We should be honest about prison and recognize that we’re sentencing people to years of confinement and torture.”

Moskos admits that flogging isn’t a likely alternative to incarceration, but hopes his book will get people thinking outside the box. “I wanted to throw a hand grenade into this debate because I don’t really see it going anywhere,” he said.