Welcome to the Summer 2007 Issue of "In the Loop"

In this issue

• Featured Story: On the Right Track to Safer Communities
• Announcements from MST Services and MST Institute
• News Briefs from Family Services Research Center at MUSC
• New MST-related Publications
• MST Community Updates and Announcements
• Network Partner Spotlight

On the Right Track to Safer Communities

Steering California's Juvenile Offenders Away from Lives of Crime
By: Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California

Each year, there are more than 200,000 arrests of juveniles in California. While the majority of kids brought before a court for the first time learn their lesson and do not come back, too many serious offenders commit crime after crime. For example, approximately 70 percent of juveniles leaving state custody, which is generally reserved for the most serious offenders, are re-arrested within three years. These repeat offenders pose a significant threat to public safety.

Proven intensive family therapies for serious and chronic offenders cut repeat arrests in half

There is now solid evidence from a growing number of rigorous studies showing that community-based interventions keep young offenders from committing more crimes. In particular, intensive family therapies give parents tools they need to regain control of their kids and steer them away from crime, while giving troubled teens the tools they need to behave responsibly. Randomized control trials prove these programs work:

• Functional Family Therapy (FFT) - Serving repeat offenders, FFT cuts re-arrests in half.
• Multisystemic Therapy (MST) - Serving other repeat offenders - some of whom were even more troubled - MST cut re-arrests for a violent offense in half.
• Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) - Serious offenders who had to be removed from their homes and were placed with specially - trained families were six times more likely to have no new arrests than boys placed in group homes.

New California research show promising state-funded interventions also can work before juveniles become serious or chronic offenders

In addition to intensive family therapies, California is successfully investing in early interventions to keep troubled youth from becoming serious or chronic offenders in the first place. According to new data:

The Repeat Offender Prevention Program (ROPP) targets young offenders who, upon their first conviction, are identified as being high risk of becoming repeat offenders. In Monterey County, similar youths not served by this program were twice as likely as participating youths to be arrested for a new crime.

Ventura County's Early Intervention program provides assessments and treatment plans for youth who are arrested, but not brought before a court. Compared to participants, similar youths who were not enrolled in the program were twice as likely to be arrested again and eight times more likely to be incarcerated.

Day Reporting Centers provide a range of comprehensive services for youths sentenced to probation and/or youths transitioning from county custody back into their communities. In Sacramento County, compared to Day Reporting Center participants, juveniles in a similar group not receiving these services were four times more likely to have a felony arrest.

Similar youths left out of San Diego County's Truancy Supervision Program were more than three times as likely to be arrested as program participants.

California has begun to fund successful community-based interventions

Established in 2006, the Juvenile Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction (MIOCR) program supports proven interventions such as intensive family therapies. Thirteen of the 20 countries awarded Juvenile MIOCR grants were funded to provide FFT, MST or MTFC.

Counties use Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) funding for both proven interventions like FFT and MST, and for a variety of promising locally-designed interventions before juveniles turn into serious or chronic offenders. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Administration credits JJCPA with "curbing juvenile crime" and deterring "countless thousands" of juveniles from ending up in custody. State-collected data released in 2006 show that at-risk youths not in JJCPA programs were 33 percent more likely to be arrested than participating youths.

Many California juvenile offenders are still not receiving needed interventions

Despite the success of many interventions at preventing crime, not nearly enough juveniles are being served through these programs. For example:

Based on the data released in April 2007, intensive family therapies serve just 4 percent of more than 20,000 juvenile offenders in California who are obvious candidates for these programs because they are either at home under intensive supervision (rather than in regular probation), in foster care or group homes, or in aftercare following custody.

Demand for funding for juvenile interventions is high. For example, in 2006 the state rejected over $14 million for Juvenile MIOCR applications due to a lack of funding, including several applications that would have funded proven intensive family therapies.

Despite a recent funding increase, JJCPA is still below its original funding level, while spending for Corrections has increased 77 percent. Many valuable JJCPA programs have been forced to shut down entirely, cut services, or place troubled youths on waiting lists.

Quality community-based interventions save lives and money

Interventions like intensive family therapies are not only relatively inexpensive compared to state custody - which now costs approximately $175,000 per youth annually - they are also cost-effective. For example, every dollar invested in intensive family therapies saves the public as much as $14 and produces net savings of $18,000 to more than $75,000 for each juvenile offender served. If California provided these interventions to all eligible youths, it could save taxpayers and crime victims over $700 million.

The more than 350 members of FIGHT CRIME:INVEST IN KIDS California support investments in proven community-based interventions that steer troubled youth away from crime. In order to build on its successes, California needs to increase funding for the Juvenile Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction program and the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act.

Learn more: Full Report: www.fightcrime.org/ca/cajjreport.pdf

Announcements from MST Services and MST Institute

---

Joie Cummings has joined MST Services as an administrative assistant. Joie is a recent graduate of the College of Charleston and is originally from the Greenville, SC area.

---

Dan Edwards will be leaving MST Services at the end of the year to become director of operations and chief operating officer for Evidence-Based Associates (EBA). Dan is currently splitting his time between MST Services and EBA.

---

MST Expert In-services: Starting in May, MSTS began holding quarterly, hour-long in-service trainings by conference call for all MST experts. The August Expert In-services are scheduled to take place on the following dates/times:

Topic: Revised Expert Introductory Readings
8/20/07 (Monday)	9 a.m. EST
8/21/07 (Tuesday)	1 p.m. EST
8/23/07 (Thursday)	11 a.m. EST
8/23/07 (Thursday)	6 p.m. EST
8/24/07 (Friday)	2 p.m. EST

---

Updated materials available within the Network Partner portal:

• Updated MST overview presentations under the "MST Resource Library - MST Community Presentation Library" section: Four versions are available -- a full length 3 to 4 hour version, a short 30 minute to 1 hour version, and two ultra-short versions (6 slides and 12 slides).
• Updated Supervisor Recruitment Toolkit under the "Development Resources for System Supervisors" section: Additional improvements have been recently added.
• Updated Therapist Recruitment Toolkit under the "MST Organizational Manual - Web Resources" link and under the "Supervisor Orientation Modules - Handouts and Trainer's Notes for 'Hiring Therapists Who Fit With MST:' Additional improvements have been recently added.

---

The MST Services Web site is being updated with a new look. Content will be largely unchanged but updated and expanded in some areas.

---

Michele Demarest has joined MST Institute to assist with programming and the Help Desk. She will be working with Kristen Crigler in responding to your questions.

---

New TAM-R reports have recently been added to the Enhanced Web site.

---

The document, "Using the Enhanced Web site to Support MST Dissemination," has been updated and is on the NP Portal.

---

News Briefs from Family Services Research Center at MUSC: New Research

The Family Services Research Center at the Medical University of South Carolina would like to welcome the following new faculty members to its team of researchers.

Cindy M. Schaeffer, PhD Joins FSRC from University of Missouri-Columbia, BSF and CRAFT

Michael R. McCart, PhD Joins FSRC from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, Drug Court

Elena H. Tuerk, PhD Joins FSRC from University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, MST-CAN

New Publications

The following MST-related publications are available:

• 267 Ellis, D.A., Frey, M.A., Naar-King, S., Templin, T., Cunningham, P.B., Cakan, N. (in press). The effects of multisystemic therapy on diabetes stress in adolescents with chronically poorly controlled type II diabetes: Findings from a randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics.
• 281 Sheidow, A. J., & Henggeler, S. W. (in press). Multisystemic Therapy with Substance Using Adolescents: A Synthesis of the Research. In N. Jainchill (Ed.), Understanding and Treating Adolescent Substance Use Disorders. Kingston, NJ: Civic Research Institute.
• 301 Saldana, L., Chapman, J.E., Henggeler, S.W., Rowland, M.D. (in press). The organizational readiness for change scale in adolescent programs: Criterion validity. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

All MST-related publications can be located at: www.musc.edu/psychiatry/research/fsrc/pubs.htm

MST Community Updates & Announcements

Welcome New MST Teams
The following MST teams were implemented during the first quarter of 2007:

North Range Behavioral Health (2 teams)	CO
St. Aloysius Orphanage	OH
Gulf Coast Teaching Family Services, Inc.	LA
Columbus Children's Hospital Behavioral Health	OH
Catholic Charities of Buffalo, New York	NY
Behavioral Health Resources	WA
Alexander Youth Network	NC