KIDS COUNT: Georgia Ranks Near Bottom of States Due to Increased Poverty

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For the third year in a row, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Book ranked Georgia 42nd overall. The KIDS COUNT report ranks states by measuring the health and safety of children using a variety of indicators. Georgia ranked in the bottom half of all indicators nationally. The study found 37 percent of Georgia children lived in a single-parent household in 2009, a 1 percent increase from the year before, ranking Georgia 41st in the nation in this category. Georgia saw increases in almost every measurement including:

Children living in poverty (+2 percent)
Children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment (+4 percent)
Teens aged 16-19 not in school and not working (+1 percent)
Teen deaths from all causes (+2 percent)

Only two measurements improved: The teen birth rate declined across all age groups and the number of teens aged 16 to 19 not in high school, who have not graduated fell by one percent.

KIDS COUNT: Significant Decline in Children’s Economic Well Being Over Past Decade

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There has been a significant decline in economic well being for low-income children and families in the last decade, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual KIDS COUNT Data Book.

Among the findings, the official child poverty rate, a conservative measure of economic hardship according to the report, increased 18 percent between 2000 and 2009. The increase represents 2.4 million more children now living below the federal poverty line, returning to roughly the same levels as the early 1990’s.

“In 2009, 42 percent of our nation’s children, or 31 million, lived in families with incomes below twice the federal poverty line or $43,512/year for a family of four, a minimum needed for most families to make ends meet,” Laura Speer, associate director for Policy Reform and Data at the Casey Foundation, said in a press release. “The recent recession has wiped out many of the economic gains for children that occurred in the late 1990’s.”

Riots in U.K. Force a Renewed Look at Juvenile Justice System

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The recent riots in Britain have forced policy makers to look anew at a juvenile justice system that has historically focused on rehabilitation and diversion. An AP story details growing public outrage and frustration of officials within the system to what they see as a soft approach to juvenile crime. The change in tone has been set by Prime Minister David Cameron, who as recently as 2006 was celebrating programs aimed at understating marginalized youth, including one dubbed “Hug a Hoodie.”

Today, however, after major riots in London, Birmingham and Manchester and other U.K cities, the prime minister threatens not only jail but a loss of government support, including housing subsidies for young people participating in the disturbances. Thousands have been arrested during and after the riots with about half of them, police say, under the age of 18.

Sheila Bedi On a Federal Initiative to Keep Students in Schools and Off the Streets

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We all want our schools to be safe and orderly. Our teachers should be able to focus on teaching and our children should be able to focus on learning. Sadly though, the effort to instill greater discipline into our schools has backfired. Instead of creating classrooms conducive to learning, schools have enacted policies that criminalize students and force teachers to spend more time on classroom management than teaching –- an approach that better prepares students to be inmates than members of the workforce. Currently, this country imprisons 2.2 million people -– the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Social Media, the Riots and a Different New York Approach

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British papers are full of news stories and commentary about the role social media has played in the riots that rocked London and other major cities. Prime Minister David Cameron’s calls to shut down some sites have been met with a barrage of criticism, such as this op-ed in the Guardian. Others have attacked the government’s overall response, including its attack on social media outlets and the deployment of water cannons comparing the aggressive behavior to the Mubarak regime’s initial response to the Egyptian uprising. The Telegraph  has a stream of comments on its web site, some from former police officers, critical of the police for not being aggressive enough, including their hesitation in shutting down the Blackberry and other cellular networks. The Blackberry network was reportedly instrumental in maintaining anonymity for many protestors and organizing riots.

Pennsylvania Juvenile Judge is Sentenced to 28 Years in Prison

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A Pennsylvania juvenile court judge was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in prison for accepting some $1 million in bribes from a builder of two juvenile detention centers. Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr., 61, was convicted earlier of racketeering in a scheme where he sent juveniles as young as 10 to the detention facilities. Ciavarella apologized to the court before the sentence, but denied he incarcerated any juveniles in return for money. The federal prosecution in the case, however, referred to Ciavarella repeatedly during the trial as the “kids for cash" judge, describing him as “vicious and mean spirited.”

After the sentencing, Sandy Fonzo, the mother of Edward Kenzakoski III, who committed suicide years after being sent to detention by Ciavarella, told the Scranton Times-Tribune ,“I believe it was just. I believe it was right.”

The case prompted Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court to reverse out some 4,000 convictions of juveniles that were handed down by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008.

Child Welfare Advocates in New York Concerned About Mental Health Misconceptions

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As many as one in five child welfare cases in New York City involve a parent with a mental health diagnoses, attorneys estimate, which creates challenges for parents, children and caseworkers, challenges that advocates believe aren't being addressed, according to a recent story in the weekly City Limits. Activist Lauren Shapiro, who works in the city to give families the legal and social support they need, told the paper that misunderstandings, such as not seeing the difference between mental health and mental retardation and wrongfully charging parents with abuse of neglect, are not unusual. Several other child welfare advocates and a child welfare report from the winter of 2009, support her perception that many people in the child welfare system don’t know how to deal with parents with mental illness. According to the report, some players in the system confuse parents’ reactions to the trauma of having children removed with genuine mental illness, and others are unaware of how to fairly determine whether a parent with mental illness can care for their children. Since its publication, changes are being made in one city agency that conducts some of the mental health evaluations, even though some workers don’t agree with the report.

43-year-old juvenile offender Steven John Carlson

43-Year-Old Charged in Juvenile Court for 1984 Slaying

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A 43-year-old man faces charges in a California juvenile court for the murder of a 14-year-old classmate more than two decades ago. Steven John Carlson was arrested this week and charged with the 1984 death of Tina Faelz, a fellow student at Foothill High School in Pleasanton, Cali., near Oakland. Faelz was found stabbed to death on April 5, 1984 in a drainage culvert she used to cross under the freeway on her way home from school. Carlson, a recent parolee and registered sex-offender, was processed in juvenile court because he was 16 at the time of the crime. A hearing will be necessary before he can face adult charges.

Incarcerated Louisiana Youth Overmedicated into Submission, Investigation Finds

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Strong antipsychotic medications are being prescribed to incarcerated juveniles across Louisiana despite lacking diagnoses for the conditions they were designed to treat, according to an investigative report by New Orlean’s The Lens. The medications are meant to help with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. After examining their records, The Lens found 22 percent of medications prescribed in eight Louisiana facilities were designed to treat bipolar disorder. But, only five percent of diagnoses were of bipolar, the investigative news site found. No diagnoses of schizophrenia were made. The most common diagnosis (found in 20 percent of incarcerated juveniles) was “conduct disorder.

While Overall Juvenile Crime Falls in Northern Ohio, Heroin Use Surges

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Officials in northern Ohio are seeing what they describe as an epidemic of drug use and offenses by juveniles. In Geauga County, in northeast Ohio, drug charges increased by 38.8 percent, and felony drug charges increased by 180 percent, according to the local juvenile court's 2010 annual report. The main drug being used is marijuana, while heroin is making a comeback, the report says. Underage drinking cases in Geauga County have been the main reason children came to court in 16 of the last 18 years, but the cases are down this year, according to the News-Herald, a daily located in Willoughby east of Cleveland. Officials attribute the increase in charges to crime enforcement efforts being made by a new judge.