National Institute of Corrections Library

This is an excellent report explaining how “school climate has a profound impact on the mental, physical, and emotional health of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] students and is a crucial factor in pushing these students out of school and into the juvenile justice system … Hostile school climate perpetuates higher rates of truancy, absenteeism, and dropping out for LGBT youth, heightening the risk of arrest for those students already particularly susceptible” (p. 6). LGBT youth make up 5-7% of the total youth population. Yet, 15% of youth in the juvenile justice system are LGBT. Sections of this report are: introduction and summary; the school-to-prison pipeline defined; hostile school climates push students out of schools; examining factors that contribute to hostile school climates—peer-on-peer bullying, dress codes and monitoring of student behavior, unenumerated policies, and lack of access to LGBT resources; harsh school discipline policies criminalize youth—zero-tolerance policies and the policing of students, and disparate application of discipline policies lead to increased suspensions, expulsions, and arrests; and alternatives to harsh discipline policies—Supportive School Discipline Initiative (SSDI), and jurisdictional responses to school discipline. SOURCE: Center for American Progress (Washington, DC). Authored by Mitchum, Preston; Moodie-Mills, Aisha C..

This “event focused on the importance and implementation of trauma-informed approaches to girls in the system, while providing an opportunity to learn about programs that have proven effective across the country. Mr. Robert Listenbee, Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) reaffirmed his office’s commitment to developing more information and tools about girls in the justice system in order to better meet their unique needs. The event featured Dr. Stephanie Covington, Co-Director at the Center for Gender and Justice, and her work on trauma-informed approaches to girls. As a nationally recognized clinician, Dr. Covington articulated the need for more gender-responsive and trauma-informed treatment services for women and girls in the public, private, and institutional settings.” The agenda included: Keynote Address: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Girls: What It Is and Why It’s Needed” by Dr. Covington; Discussion of Keynote—The Importance of a Trauma-Informed Approach to Girls; Panel 1—Implementation of Trauma-Informed Approaches in Public Systems; and Panel 2—Exposure to Violence and Trauma at Home and in the Neighborhood. The second link takes you to the slides for Dr. Covington’s presentation. SOURCE: Georgetown University Law. Center on Poverty, Inequality & Public Policy (Washington, DC); Human Rights Project for Girls (Washington, DC); National Crittenton Foundation (Portland, OR).

If you are looking for primers on issues related to juvenile justice, then this website is for you. Bulletins as of January 2013 are: “Common Mental Health Problems Experienced by Youth in Confinement - Action Steps”; “Designing and Implementing Quality Education Programs in Confinement Settings”; “Effective Behavior Management Plans”; “Enhancing Access to Counsel within Juvenile Facilities”; “Family Engagement in the Juvenile Justice Field”; “Fundamentals of External Oversight and Internal Quality Assurance” and “The Family Model for Engaging Families in the Justice System. SOURCE: National Center for Youth in Custody (NCYC) (Kalamazoo, MI).

“As a low-cost delinquency prevention and intervention option that capitalizes on the resources of local communities and caring individuals, mentoring has emerged as a promising delinquency reduction strategy for at-risk or high-risk youth. This research study [“Researching the Referral Stage of Youth Mentoring in Six Juvenile Justice Settings: An Exploratory Analysis”], which used multiple methods to capture data from mentoring and juvenile justice settings, provides a deeper understanding of how youth are referred to mentoring, challenges faced during the referral process, examples of effective strategies to face the challenges and action steps” (p. 1). This compendium begins with a detailed account of the findings and implications of the study. Resources following this section are memorandums of understanding (MOU) for a mentoring program for each of the juvenile justice settings along with technical assistance profiles for each; a Delinquency Court, Dependency Court, Teen Court/Youth Court Program, Juvenile Corrections, Juvenile Detention, and Juvenile Probation. Each memorandum of understanding contains sections on: what a MOU is; why a MOU is important; how the MOU identifies the structure for the partnership; juvenile setting description; mentoring program description; tips and strategies for writing an MOU; MOU policy and programmatic discussion points; and training and technical assistance resources. Each technical assistance profile contains sections covering: what the particular juvenile setting entails; mentoring program description; geographical and demographic characteristics; possible challenges facing youth involved with the particular juvenile setting; frequently asked questions about mentoring in the setting; what’s working—examples of effective strategies; challenges and action steps; terms and definitions; and training and technical assistance resources. SOURCE: MENTOR: National Mentoring Partnership (Boston, MA); Global Youth Justice (Washington, DC); National Partnership for Juvenile Services (NPJS) (Lexington, KY). Authored by Miller, J. Mitchell; Miller, Holly Ventura; Barnes, J.C.; Clark, Pamela A.; Jones, Michael A.; Quiros, Ronald J.; Peterson, Scott Bernard.