Reimagining youth justice
The Ramsey County Attorney General’s Office maintains a website that tracks and evaluates collaborative efforts to reinvent youth justice. Preliminary results are encouraging.
The new approach to juvenile justice began with a research project with the University of Minnesota to conduct a 10-year baseline data analysis to understand how the traditional system worked. The analysis, carried out in 2020, found that when a young person was most often referred to the justice system, the less effective the impact was, as they became a repeat offender as an adult. Youth with the most serious behaviors often found themselves accused of crime as adults. Black, Latino, and Indigenous youth were most likely to be referred to the legal system rather than using other options.
Preliminary results from an ongoing evaluation process indicate that community participation, including youth’s families, has an impact on reducing recidivism. Some examples of quotes from young people involved in the new process:
Quotes from a first-year report on the new community-based approach to juvenile justice in Ramsey County
Connections for families affected by incarceration
THE Minnesota Department of Health and several other partners came together in a pilot project to help incarcerated children and parents maintain family connections. Having an incarcerated parent can lead to increased risk of illness, poor mental health, substance abuse, and poor academic performance. Research conducted by the University of Minnesota and Wilder shows that staying connected can reduce some of the negative impacts.
Minnesota Health Care Disparities Report
MN Community Measurement has released its health care disparities report by race, ethnicity, preferred language, and country of origin for care provided in Minnesota in 2022. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx patients; patients who speak Hmong, Somali, or Spanish as their first language; and patients from Laos, Mexico, or Somalia had “health care quality rates significantly lower than the state average.”
The report found that adolescents of all races, ethnicities and nationalities – except Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander adolescents – were screened for mental health or depression at much higher rates in 2022 than before the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, 92% of 12-17 year olds were screened for mental health and/or depression during a well-child visit in 2022. Indigenous and Indigenous adolescents, however, were 5% less likely than the state average of receiving a mental exam. health examination during a visit to a healthy child. Adolescents who preferred to speak Somali were significantly less likely than their peers to undergo mental health screenings at 6 or 12 months.
Adults with depression had huge disparities in follow-up treatment by primary language spoken. Native Somali speakers were approximately 13% less likely to have 6-month follow-up screening and approximately 21% less likely to have 12-month follow-up than English speakers. Find the full report here.
Home Course
Launch of United Way in the Greater Twin Cities Home Course to interrupt the path to homelessness for foster youth and adults transitioning from incarceration. According to a 2023 Annie E. Casey Foundation report, approximately 400 youth age out of Minnesota’s foster care system at age 18 each year – by age 21, 41% are without housing. stable and 44% were incarcerated. Pathways Home is creating a coalition of Minnesotans committed to housing, youth development and reentry work to design a cross-sector model that identifies services and areas to help vulnerable populations find safe housing.
Implementation of restorative practices
The Minnesota Department of Education has a Implementation of the Restorative Practices Program which offers a list of resources for community practices aimed at repairing relationships when damage has been done in schools.
Combating anxiety in children
Rocky Casillas Aguirre of Northfield, executive director of Sharing Our Roots (who worked with us on this story in 2021), wrote and illustrated a book of stories
for children titled “Where did the anxiety go?” The goal is to help children realize that anxiety is a common and normal way the body responds to feelings and is not a definition of who they are. It includes a mindfulness exercise to help children sit with their emotions instead of pushing them away.
Casillas Aguirre indicates that anxiety is something he has experienced since childhood, and especially during the pandemic. He attributes the high rates of anxiety and mental health issues young people face today to technology’s access to the concerns and measuring sticks of culture, a disconnection from nature and a system educational that prioritizes productivity over exploration. The storybook, aimed at children aged three to six, attempts to normalize conversations and safe spaces to talk about mental health, which is otherwise a taboo subject from a young age.
He says he would like to see meditation integrated into all schools as a way to teach emotional calm and mental clarity. “If children started their first class with meditation, it would help them release initial stress and focus better on the day ahead,” he says. “Gym classes could incorporate walking meditation, yoga or breathing exercises after strenuous activity to help students return to a state of calm. Replacing detention with meditation is something all schools should be moving towards. Traditional detention, which punishes children who misbehave without the opportunity to think, does a disservice to young people because it does not help them develop their emotional intelligence.
A few schools in Baltimore have integrated meditation into their program, says Casillas Aguirre: “with promising results – fewer verbal and physical altercations, fewer suspensions, and an increase in student attendance and GPAs. I would love to see Minnesota follow in their footsteps.
He visited some Northfield schools to talk about art and mental health, including an “exercise to transform their emotions into colorful characters.” In doing so, we give them their own personality and identity. We talk to them and ask them questions. We sit with them and meditate. All of this helps create some space between us and our emotions, so that we don’t feel consumed by them. Feelings, whether pleasant or uncomfortable, are just passing visitors.
