Family Justice was recently in Ohio as a part of our ongoing work piloting the Juvenile Relational Inquiry Tool. This was our third and final trip to Scioto, pictured at left. Staff there were very excited to see the Juvenile Relational Inquiry Tool in draft form. They will now pilot it for two weeks. One social worker who tested the tool while we were there said she loved it. She used the tool to inform her work with a youth who is new to her unit, and she felt it helped set the tone that the facility respects his connection to his family. A promising sign indeed!

Next stop: Arizona!

New York State’s juvenile justice system has been the subject of troubling news this week after the Department of Justice reported the use of excessive force at four facilities. Office of Children & Family Services Commissioner Gladys Carrion says the current administration inherited a system that is “rife with substantial systemic problems,” and she added that “much more still needs to be done.”

Today, CNN.com has an article about the respectful, promising approach Missouri is taking with young people.

[Excerpt:]

"[Terrence] Barkley wasn't scared straight. He wasn’t packed away in a crowded facility with steel bars and razor wire. He wasn't under the constant guard of uniformed officers with billy clubs or locked down with hundreds of other juveniles.

Instead, he was sent to Waverly Regional Youth Center, one of Missouri's 32 residential facilities where he wore his jeans and T-shirts. He slept in his own bunk bed in a room that looks more like a dorm than a jail cell. He received counseling and schooling."

Staff from Family Justice and the American Probation and Parole Association will lead a session at APPA's 34th Annual Training Institute, Aug. 23-26 in Anaheim.

Join us on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 23,  for an intensive session led by Margaret diZerega, director of training and technical assistance at Family Justice, and Tracy Mullins, senior research associate at APPA. The presentation, "Engaging Families in Community Supervision through the Family Support Approach for Community Supervision," will focus on tools and techniques used to engage families, to leverage their support and help individuals under supervision achieve their goals.

We will also host a booth in the exhibitor hall. Stop by Booth #109 in the APPA Resource Expo and say hello!

A front-page article in The New York Times today describes the extent that young people dealing with mental illness end up in the juvenile justice system, often because of insufficient treatment options.

This excerpt from Solomon Moore’s article speaks to the impact on families when a loved one has mental health concerns and is involved in the juvenile justice system:

“I’ve begged D.Y.S. to get him into a mental facility where they’re trained to deal with people like him,” said [the grandmother of a young man described in the article], who asked not to be identified because of the stigma of having a grandson who is mentally ill. “I don’t think a lockup situation is where he should be, although I don’t think he should be on the street either.”

Given the changing demographics of the incarcerated population, juvenile facilities are providing relevant staff development to help personnel work more effectively with young people. Staff at some facilities we have visited receive training about communication techniques that will help them deescalate situations verbally rather than resorting to harsher techniques, such as restraints. And in Michigan, the director of the W.J. Maxey Boys Training School has done cross-training with all staff so they are comfortable with language used in treatment and that they reinforce treatment goals.