The FAMCare Blog

On November 18, 2020, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET, the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice (FACJJ) will hold a virtual meeting. Composed of members of state advisory groups on juvenile justice, the FACJJ advises the President, Congress, and OJJDP Administrator on matters related to juvenile justice, and evaluates the progress and accomplishments of juvenile justice activities and projects.

Register to attend.

COVID-19 Diagnoses in Juvenile Facilities
Known Cases as of June 24
658 youth, 771 staff 

Annie E. Casey Foundation

“If there was ever a good time to make sure that not a single young person spends a single day in detention or placement unless there is an immediate and severe risk to community safety, this is it,” says Nate Balis, director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group. “This is the time for juvenile justice agencies to scrutinize every detention and placement decision and to review — if not reconsider — every policy that leans toward confinement.”

Today, we all work in silos with our heads down and our noses to the grindstone. This self-imposed isolation adds to the burn out rate in social services. This blog hopes to offer you a refreshing break from the intensity of your service – “Think of reading this blog as a refreshing “glance around the room” looking for inspiration and encouragement from your colleagues who, like you, have dedicated their lives to the service of society’s most vulnerable.”

The Headline

After years of writing about the mass incarceration of Americans, it gives us great pleasure to share this headline with everyone in the social services community.

A new resource guide is available that helps to keep our teens and youth safe.  If you'd like to grab a copy - you can get it here:  https://www.staysafe.org/teens/ 

A resource for finding Federal grants to fund youth programs has been shared with our team.  You can find information on the http://youth.gov website.

In September 2017, we told the story of Agnes Gund, the banking heiress who sold a Roy Lichtenstein masterpiece for $165 million and donated the proceeds to the Art for Justice Fund she founded. The purpose was to “do something about” the mass incarceration of minor drug offenders that filled American jails with 2.3 million people and distinguished the U.S. as the jailor of more of its citizens than any other country on earth.

The Martin Luther King housing projects in Harlem are less than a mile from the wealthiest zip code in America. The apartments along Fifth Avenue facing Central Park from 59th to 89th street sell for $3 million to $30 million. Agnes Gund, a banking heiress and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, lives in one of those apartments. Agnes is a renowned collector of modern art who recently surprised the art world by selling the Roy Lichtenstein masterpiece that long hung over the mantle in her Manhattan apartment for $162 million, one of the 15 highest prices ever paid for artwork. She then further shocked the nonprofit world by donating $100 million from the sale to create the Art for Justice Fund, which on its website calls itself a movement to end mass incarceration. “I thought I should do something about something that to me is so wrong about our system,” Gund said. With that simple statement, Agnes Gund recognized the plight of the poor community that lived a universe away from her posh surroundings but only a half mile from her front door.

Congress enacted the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in 1974 and ushered in a new era of enlightenment in juvenile justice.  The original law provided for the deinstitutionalization of status offenders requiring that youth who are runaways, truants, or curfew violators cannot be detained in juvenile detention facilities or adult jails.