Join YTFG’s Safe Passage Conference Calls
The Youth Transition Funders Group is hosting two conference calls this fall to share how funders and communities are working together to help all of America s youth connect by age 25. Panelists will discuss pathways to college and careers, reform and alternatives to incarceration, and programs that help youth become financially independent after foster care .

Update: If you want to get follow-up materials and a notice when Chiu's paper is released, email jan@connectforkids.org. A summary of this conference call is posted as a field report on Connect for Kids.

Last month, I wrote about Florida's welcome decision to shut down its four remaining "boot camps" for juvenile offenders, in favor of somewhat gentler approaches to young kids in trouble with the law. The closure was the latest fallout from the death of 14-year-old Martin Anderson while in the custody of one of the camps.

The Florida legislature has agreed to do away with the state's four remaining boot camps for juvenile offenders, and replace them with a "softer" program. The decision, which includes some increased funding, is a fitting memorial for 14-year-old Martin Anderson, who died one day after entering the Bay County boot camp in January. Though the doctor who performed the first autopsy on Anderson ruled his death was due to sickle-cell trait, a usually non-fatal blood disorder, the release of a video from the boot camp showing guards beating Anderson raised questions about that result. A second autopsy was carried out with the consent of Anderson's parents, but the results haven't been made public.

Arrest rates for assault are rising for girls but before we start an avalanche of talk shows about what's the matter with girls today, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania say we better look at the data first. They say girls' arrests for homicide, robbery, and rape/sexual assault have not been rising. And the evidence is that assaults by girls haven't been increasing either.

Re the boot camps in Florida--Mitch Needelman writes:
"Done! As of 9am today, March 24, 2006, Military Style Juvenile Boot Camps have been abolished in the Florida House of Representatives. $10.5 million has ben transferred to other programs such as educational services, counseling, family therapy and rehabilitation services for children."

Congressional reporters say many of President Bush's FY2007 budget proposals drew a “decidedly cool reception” from House committees that submitted their annual "views and estimates" to the Budget Committee to help it in drafting the congressional budget resolution for FY2007.

The war on drugs has taken a lot of prisoners, especially mothers serving mandatory sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Their children bear the burden -- and the loss -- often in isolation or with few supports from the authorities who keep their mothers locked up and unable to care for them.

Who said this? Some bleeding-heart liberal opposed to getting tough on crime? No -- it's what Harry M. Whittington said when he served on the Texas Department of Corrections in the 1980s, after observing conditions in many state prisons.

When you were in college, how many times did you call home for comfort, advice, a recipe -- and maybe some help paying that long-distance bill you ran up while breaking up with your boy/girlfriend? Or, say you went to work after high school. Did your folks lend you a hand with that first month's security deposit on a new apartment? Bring you a meal and a care package of pots, pans, and laundry detergent?