California's Children

Inner city kids have higher rates of PTSD than combat veterans

May 8, 2012: Youth living in inner cities show a higher prevalence of post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) than soldiers, according to Howard Spivak M.D., at left, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Violence Prevention, who presented research showing that children are essentially “living in combat zones” at a Congressional briefing held April 27, 2012, in Washington D.C.

Michael Karpman reported on the briefing sponsored by the Congressional Tri-Caucus and the Prevention Institute’s Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY) in the blog CitiesSpeak.org for the National League of Cities (NLC).

Among other findings shared at the briefing were:

• Children’s exposure to violence not only has serious mental health consequences, but is also linked with a range of chronic illnesses, including heart and lung diseases and diabetes.  Neuroscientists have found that this type of trauma changes how chromosomes form, hinders brain development, and may shorten a person’s life expectancy by 7-10 years.
• The 2009 National Survey of Children Exposed to Violence – conducted as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Defending Childhood Initiative – found that 60% of children were exposed to violence within the previous year.
• Homicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24.  In many cities, it is the leading cause (e.g., San Francisco).

... some cities are making substantial progress in reducing youth violence... by redefining violence as an issue of public health...treating and combating violence as a preventable disease.

The perception of violence as both a criminal justice issue and a public health epidemic appears to be spreading...

Twenty cities (including Oakland, Salinas, Richmond, and San Diego) belong to the UNITY City Network and are using the UNITY Road Map as a framework ...for policy and programs....

Since 2007, thirteen cities in California (Fresno, Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley), Oakland, Oxnard, Richmond, Sacramento, Salinas, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Rosa, and Stockton) have developed comprehensive gang prevention action plans as part of their participation in the California Cities Gang Prevention Network, an initiative sponsored by NLC and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (based in Oakland).  

Written for California's Children By Elizabeth J Carlyle.

900 LA kids live in "inappropriate" DCFS placements, audit finds

UPDATE, March 30, 2012:  The state auditor, Elaine M. Howle, at left, released her report on the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services on Thursday, and the results, as reported in the Los Angeles Times by Garrett Therolf, are not flattering. Among some of the expected concerns, such as lags between reports of suspected neglect or abuse and social worker investigations, were some new problems:

...The audit also uncovered fresh problems at the Department of Children and Family Services and reported that the thousands of cembers do not have proper safety measures in place.

 The department failed to perform all required assessments and criminal background checks before placing children in homes for nine of the 20 placements with a relative reviewed by the auditor.

Between 2008 and 2010, the department assessed and approved fewer than a third of the homes and caregivers before placing children with relatives, the auditor said.

Nearly 900 children lived in homes of relatives that -- once assessed by the department -- were determined to be unsafe or inappropriate. It typically took 43 days to either remove these children from the placements or reassess and approve the homes, the auditor said.

Previously reported:

October 27, 2011: State Auditor Elaine M. Howle said child welfare officials failed to check the sex offender registry even after her office advised them to do so in 2008, according to a story that broke today in the Los Angeles Times from reporter and child welfare advocate Garrett Therolf. In a report released from Howle's department, the audit notes over 1,000 addresses of California foster homes matched that of registered sex offenders in the state's Dept. of Justice Sex and Arson Registry. The Associated Press quoted Howle as saying that 600 of the addresses were "tied to high-risk offenders."

Supremes comments on LWOP/juvvie cases fall along partisan lines

UPDATE, March 21, 2012: The Supreme Court's response to Tuesday's arguments by lawyers in the life-without-parole for juvenile offenders issue -- two cases are being considered together -- fell along the expected liberal/conservative lines. As Nina Totenberg, at left, reported for NPR (full transcript can, and should, be read here):

...Justices Alito, Scalia and John Roberts, the chief justice, weren't swayed by Stevenson's argument. But the critical vote in these juvenile sentencing cases in the past has been Justice Anthony Kennedy. He and several other justices focused on a narrower question — whether the mandatory sentences here are unconstitutional because the jury cannot consider the defendant's age, background or even intent.

Stevenson said that 80 percent of the life without parole sentences for those 14 and younger are in states where the penalty is mandatory for murder. And, in many of these states, even minors convicted of second-degree murder, with no intent to kill, get a mandatory term of life without parole. Alabama and Arkansas, where the crimes in Tuesday's arguments took place, are among those states.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted that she saw "a world of difference" between the two crimes, because in one, the juvenile was not the shooter, and in the other, the defendant participated in the beating and arson that led to the victim's death.

When lawyers for the states, invoked the seriousness of the crimes, Justice Ginsburg replied that a mandatory sentence of life without parole for a juvenile makes "a 14-year-old a throwaway person."

Justice Stephen Breyer wondered whether there is a dividing line, saying: "Three years old, 10 years old, 12 years old — what kind of argument is there that isn't totally random for picking that number as the age below which you cannot impose life without parole even for the most horrendous murder?"....

LAO tells state to shutter all juvvie prisons

February 17, 2012: California lawmakers should phase out the state’s youth prison system and begin housing and treating all juvenile offenders in county programs, according to recommendations released Wednesday by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, and published in today's Bay Citizen in a story by Trey Bundy.

Citing “merit on both policy and fiscal grounds,” the report urged the Legislature to develop funding proposals that would support Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to stop sending youth to the Division of Juvenile Justice next year. The plan — which seeks to close the prisons altogether by 2015 — would make California first in the nation to eliminate state-run youth prisons...

David Steinhart, director of the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program in Marin County, applauded the LAO report, calling it “a road map for the final realignment of youth prisons in California.”

“In this final round of DJJ shutdown, we’ve had a lack of detail and a lack of a comprehensive plan,” Steinhart said. “The LAO has taken the governor’s plan and organized it and formatted it for getting the state out of the youth prison system.”...

 

3 youth orgs tapped for $125K James Irvine awards

February 16, 2012: The James Irvine Foundation announced its recipients for its $125K 2012 Leadership Awards on February 13. The award honors innovators who have solved some of the state's most difficult problems. Three of this year's winners have had a direct impact on children, as John Fensterwald reported in Educated Guess:

Carolyn Laub, executive director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network (San Francisco); Christa Gannon, the executive director of Fresh Lifelines for Youth in Milpitas (Santa Clara) and Olis Simmons, executive director of the Youth UpRising center in East Oakland....

Carolyn Laub: The Gay-Straight Alliance Network was founded in 1998 to fight homophobia in schools. The number of GSA clubs in middle and high schools in California has now grown from 40 to more than 850 with 13,000 to 15,000 members; there is a GSA club in 53% of all high schools, including 8 in the Central Valley.

 

 Olis Simmons: Youth UpRising, Oakland, was founded in 2004; it is a $7 million (annual budget) organization that provides mentoring, academic help, job training (200 youth graduate and find work each year), art and music classes, and an on-site health clinic for 3,000 young people aged 13 to 24, all free of charge. Is also runs four enterprises that employ 45 youth: a restaurant and catering service, a multimedia production team, a janitorial company, and a data processing group.

Christa Gannon: Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY), Milpitas, is a 13-year-old program that offers a 12-week program aimed at preventing at-risk youth from re-offending; 2,000 youth, 14-18, on probation or incarcerated, participate each year in the program which covers courses in self-motivation, life choices, and the legal system.

FLY’s law programs teach about the law and the consequences of crime, using role-plays, debates, and mock city council hearings to build skills in anger management, problem solving, empathy, and resisting negative peer pressure.  There is also an adult mentoring program and a leadership program. 

Each year, 70 youth are chosen for a more intense yearlong leadership program with 2,500 hours of community service. Its record of preventing recidivism through the Leadership program is impressive (an 85% success rate); the cost savings are impressive as well: $9,000 for the program versus $100,000 per year in Juvenile Hall. Gannon expects to introduce the program in other parts of the state in the next decade.

Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.