HOUSTON - Some 700 of the nation's top juvenile-justice reformers are gathering in Texas this week to share strategies for reducing the number of troubled youths who wind up behind bars. With several recent studies confirming that problem kids tend to do better when they're not sent off to institutions, participants at the conference want to speed up the trend toward community-based solutions.

Bart Lubow, director of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which is hosting the Houston gathering, says just locking kids up mostly doesn't work.

"Our reliance on incarceration is a failed policy. It doesn't work for the kids; it doesn't work for public safety; it doesn't work for taxpayers, because it's enormously expensive."

The Casey Foundation has teamed up with jurisdictions in 32 states to help implement alternatives to so-called "zero-tolerance" policies that focus on youth detention. Harris and Dallas counties are participating in Texas. Community-based rehabilitation is one of the goals of the state's new Juvenile Justice Department.

The conference will highlight Houston's de-emphasis on incarceration during the past few years.

Tom Brooks, who directs the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, says 690 area youths were sent to "state school" in 2006, compared with only 97 last year.

"I think we're able to achieve that by providing individual programs, getting out in the community, working with the families, dealing with individual needs, engaging different community providers to do wrap-around services."

Statewide, the number of juvenile offenders behind bars has dropped from more than 4,000 in 2006 to around 1,400 now. While Brooks believes it is sometimes appropriate to lock up juvenile offenders, he thinks jurisdictions should ask questions first.

"Are they locking up the right child? What is the reason you're locking that child up? And make sure that all the alternatives are being provided and looked at, because if you lock them up and just let them go without any services, chances are it's going to be a revolving door and they're going to be right back."

While Brooks praises the last Legislature for encouraging probation departments to rehab kids locally, he says more funding is needed to pay for programs. Spending more up front on youth services, he adds, is a proven way to save money in the long run. When kids are locked up they are significantly more likely to re-offend after getting out, according to recent research.

A report on recent research is at www.utexas.edu.




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As the year comes to an end, one event aims to help high schoolers in Arizona learn how to better manage their money. The "Bite of Reality" fairs across the West engage high schoolers by assigning them a persona and students then having to create a budget accordingly.

Sarae Bay, assistant vice president and manager director with the GoWest Foundation, said her organization works with credit unions in Arizona and help sponsor the fairs. She said the exercise is an opportunity for young people to "experiment and make mistakes with finances in a realistic but safe environment."

"They complete a 90 minute budgeting exercise, and it really helps give students a realistic look at money management by updating their budgets in real time to see the true impact of their everyday as well as planned purchases and expenses," she said.

Bay added participants' fictional persona will include an occupation, salary, credit score, possible spouse and child and debt among various other considerations. They then visit "merchants" to purchase items such as housing, groceries, transportation and child care. When they find themselves in a bind, local credit unions are then able to offer guidance.

More than 90 "Bite of Reality" fairs have reached 9,000 students across the West, including Arizona. Bay added that students have left the real-life simulation feeling more prepared to make better financial decisions, and says adds that while all young people's situations are different, no one can go wrong with learning how to better manage their money.

"So the more practice they have in a safe environment, where they aren't going to have a catastrophic mistake that is detrimental to their credit which would impact their ability to find an apartment to live in, or get a small-business loan or a graduate-school loan down the line, it is really, really critical," she continued.

Bay said having been a financial educator and counselor for many years, she knows many people "cringe" at the thought of making a budget and says a simulation exercise like "Bite of Reality" has made doing so less of a burden and more interactive, hopefully leaving participants with important lifelong skills.


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First-generation college students face a host of expectations and challenges - and that's why New Mexico State University will spotlight their accomplishments this month. First-gen students account for about one-third of the NMSU student population.

Rosa De La Torre-Burmeister, advising technology assistant director, says parents, siblings and other family members of first-generation students often are overwhelmed with pride.

"From the siblings, it's nothing but excitement and they want to follow," she explained. "They want to be like their brother or sister. They're celebrated as, I would call them, a 'hero.'"

She added many students new to the university system say they're motivated by watching their own parents achieve dreams after moving to the U.S. without financial resources, a firm grasp on English or the opportunity to pursue higher education.

She said first-generation students face pressures at home and school. They may have trouble relating to peers from families who've attended college for decades, learning the unspoken cultural norms and navigating university life. This is the fifth year NMSU will honor those efforts which Torre-Burmeister feels is important, during a time when good news is often overshadowed.

"There's so many successes that we don't celebrate - there are just so many other negative issues out there that we don't celebrate these moments for these students - these individuals who have worked so hard to earn this certification," she continued.

Torre-Burmeister is a first-generation student, who added she still finds it hard to believe she went from picking onions and tomatoes to graduating from Doña Ana Community College and receiving advanced degrees from Penn University and NMSU.

About 300 young adults leaving foster care in California will now receive a monthly check to help them make ends meet, part of the state's first guaranteed income program.

Some 150 people in Ventura will receive $1,000 a month and another 150 in San Francisco will receive $1,200 dollars a month, with no strings attached.

Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, who wrote the bill to launch the program, said "paternalistic" programs restricting the aid to cover only food or rent have not worked in the past.

"People in poverty need to be empowered, just like the rest of us, to make their own decisions," Cortese contended. "It really should be up to them to decide whether they need food, a warm coat, or rent. These aren't decisions that the state should be making, these are decisions that individuals should be making."

Opponents worry people receiving unrestricted income could waste it on luxuries, but post-analysis of pilot programs in Stockton and Santa Clara County disprove the concern. While the effort is the first statewide universal basic income program, there are also about 200 local programs now operating across California.

Cortese argued such programs reduce homelessness and end up saving the state money in the long run.

"We have significant economic disparity issues in this state," Cortese pointed out. "This gets the kind of outcomes that we're looking for in terms of giving people a leg up and keeping them out of the systems that cost us a lot of money; incarceration, like mental health and so forth."

Cortese hopes to secure funding next year for a similar proposal, called the California Success, Opportunity, and Academic Resilience or "SOAR" program, which would give a five-month stipend to the 15,000 homeless children who exit California high schools each year.


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