Six win statewide honors at close
of youth justice conference

            LITTLE ROCK — Five Arkansans and a youth program won the state’s top juvenile justice honors Thursday from the Arkansas Coalition for Juvenile Justice at the close of its annual statewide conference at the Statehouse Convention Center.
            Receiving individual awards were: Edwin A. Keaton of Camden, circuit judge in the 13th Judicial District, Juvenile Judge of the Year Award; Rhonda Howell with Comprehensive Juvenile Services of Fort Smith, the Juvenile Justice Worker of the Year Award; David Bergstrom with Comprehensive Juvenile Services in Van Buren, Juvenile Justice Advocate of the Year Award; and two young men who tied for the state’s ACJJ Spirit of Youth Award, Jordan Meadows of Calico Rock and Brian Reynolds of Hot Springs.
            Recognized with the Juvenile Justice Program of the Year Award was the Garland County Juvenile Detention Facility in Hot Springs, accepted by the facility administrator, Lt. Belinda Cosgrove.
            The awards were presented Thursday, November 6 at the final session of the ninth annual ACJJ statewide conference on juvenile justice and delinquency prevention. Theme of the conference was Emerging Reforms in Juvenile Justice.
            The ACJJ is the state advisory group under terms of the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. It advises the governor and the legislature about issues, trends and practices related to delinquency prevention and the state’s juvenile justice system.
            Presenting the awards was Senator Tracy Steele of North Little Rock, majority leader of the Arkansas Senate and founding CEO of The STAND Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing leadership training for young adults.

  Judge Edwin Keaton           David Bergstrom      Lt. Belinda Cosgrove (GCJDF)

    Rhonda Howell               Jordan Meadows              Brian Reynolds

Coalition keys its state conference
to emerging reforms in juvenile justice

            LITTLE ROCK – “Reform is in the air,” states the program for this year’s statewide conference on juvenile justice and delinquency prevention in Little Rock. The Arkansas Coalition for Juvenile Justice, which sponsors the conference with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, has made emerging reforms its focus.
            Meeting at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock November 4, 5 and 6, hundreds of juvenile court personnel, educators, youth services providers, detention center workers, law enforcement officers and others involved with youthful offenders will learn about model programs, treatments, new research, and yes, emerging reforms in juvenile justice.
            Among featured events is a two-part plenary session Wednesday afternoon that begins with a presentation on the Missouri model of juvenile justice by Tim Decker, director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services.
            Missouri’s juvenile justice system is widely recognized for its humane, therapeutic approach; its cost-effectiveness and its success in encouraging young people to become law-abiding, productive citizens.
            The session’s second part is a panel discussion focusing on efforts of the Arkansas Division of Youth Services to bring innovative programs and initiatives to the state’s youth justice system. The Division recently completed a report, in collaboration with the JEHT Foundation of New York, designed to help the state build a plan for reform.
            The conference will open at 11 a.m. Tuesday with a welcoming luncheon and keynote address by Victor Woods of Chicago, a motivational speaker and author of an autobiography covering his remarkable journey through state and federal prisons, reentry to the outside world and a successful career.
            The final conference event will be an awards breakfast Thursday morning featuring winners of the 2008 ACJJ Awards for outstanding individuals and juvenile justice programs.
            Information and registration links may be found at the ACJJ Website, www.arjuvjust.net.

Pulaski County heads group effort to reduce minority delinquency, involvement with youth justice system

LITTLE ROCK – Federal law requires that states participating in the Justice Department’s youth justice formula grants program must address delinquency prevention and system improvement efforts to reduce the disproportionate number of juvenile members of minority groups who come in contact with the juvenile justice system.

Arkansas is one of many states that have a greater proportion of minority youths who come in contact with the law than the proportion of majority white children, and Pulaski County has the state’s largest minority population.

According to officials addressing a press conference Friday (July 18) at the County’s Juvenile Justice Center in Little Rock, Pulaski County is heading up a collaborative project that brings together a dozen organizations to tackle disproportionate minority contact with a large-scale mentoring program that will provide adult role models for black and Hispanic youths.

The program, titled the VILLAGE Initiative, is funded by a $100,000 federal Juvenile Accountability Block Grant administered through the state Division of Youth Services. The project is a collaborative effort directed and coordinated by Pulaski County Youth Services, an arm of county government.

VILLAGE is an acronym formed by the initial letters of the words Vision, Integrity, Leading, Learning, Advancing, and Giving Encouragement. The concept is based on the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Elements of the program include recruiting and training volunteer adult mentors, referral of minority youths to the program who are at risk of dropping out of school or becoming delinquent, and monitoring and assessing results to determine the program’s effectiveness.

Mentoring activities will be conducted by faith-based partners including Antioch Full Gospel Baptist Church in College Station; and Gaines Street Missionary Baptist Church, the Performing Arts Institute at 34^th Street Missionary Baptist Church, and Promiseland Church Ministries, all in Little Rock.

The project targets black and Hispanic youths 15 to 18 years old living in the 72202, 72204, 72206 and 72209 zip codes. According to the press briefing, the targeted zip code areas exhibit high unemployment and poverty rates, large numbers of single-parent and female single-parent homes, low high school graduation rates; and more than three-fourths of minority youths held in the county juvenile detention center live in those areas.

Seven organizations have signed on to help support the effort. They include:

Little Rock School District and the Metropolitan Career Technical Center.   The school district will refer youths from the student population to the program, and Metropolitan CTC will provide career training opportunities to the mentored youth.

Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department will provide workshops for participants on interacting with law enforcement personnel and the procedures law enforcement personnel must go through to ensure public safety. Employees of the Sheriff’s Office will also have the opportunity to serve as mentors for the program.

Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center will provide access to Juvenile Education Initiative (JEdI) software to enhance the education portion of the program.

Young Black Professionals of Arkansas will host quarterly recognition events and serve as a source for mentor recruitment.

Philander Smith College. A faculty member from the College will serve as a program evaluator and assessor. The faculty and students will also serve as potential sources of mentors.

The Young Group, Inc. will train mentors on how to build effective and meaningful relationships with mentored youth and will also provide motivational speakers for the program participants.

100 Black Men of Greater Little Rock, Inc. will host quarterly recognition events and serve as a source for mentor recruitment.

The officials presented figures showing mentored students are more likely to stay in school and attend college, 24 percent less likely to use alcohol, 46 percent less likely to begin drug use, 53 percent less likely to skip school, 33 percent less likely to resort to violence, and 59 percent more likely to improve their grades.

The press conference was held in a juvenile courtroom at the county juvenile justice complex and was opened by Juvenile Judge Joyce Williams Warren, who said the site was chosen “because the purpose of this program is to prevent our youth from entering places such as this courtroom and juvenile justice facilities throughout the state of Arkansas.

“No one knows all the reasons that so many of our minority youth have contact with the juvenile and adult justice systems,” she said, “but we do know that mentoring is an effective way to reach our children. Through mentoring, our children are given many of the tools necessary to live productive lives in our society. These tools can assist them in making positive decisions that can keep them out of the justice system.”

Others who addressed the conference include Charles Mobley, Director of Pulaski County Youth Services; County Judge F. G. “Buddy” Villines; and William A. Ward of Little Rock, chairman of the Statewide Committee on Disproportionate Minority Contact, an arm of the Arkansas Coalition for Juvenile Justice.

William A. Ward, left, chairman of the Statewide Committee on Disproportionate Minority Contact, answers questions from the press at a conference announcing the VILLAGE Initiative youth mentoring program. At front beside Ward is Pulaski County Judge F. G. "Buddy" Villines. From left rear are Pulaski County Youth Services Director Charles Mobley, Ivan Hudson of Young Black Professionals of Arkansas, Michael Peterson of Metropolitan Career Technical Center in Little Rock, and K. O. Young with The Young Group, Inc.