Troubled Teens Resources

Teens at risk for getting lost inside the juvenile justice system are the focus of a new book by Jessica R. Kendall. In this case, teens at risk are identified as those who are starting a pattern of truancy or other misdeeds. They have not progressed so far into crime or addiction that it would merit sending this “status offender” to schools for troubled teens or rehab programs. But, in this author’s mind, failure to adequately address their problems is paving the way for exactly those destinations.

“For hundreds of thousands of youngsters every year, activities such as skipping school or running away can be the first steps of a long descent into deeply troubled adult lives. Yet these youth, known in legal parlance as “status offenders” or “children in need of services,” often get lost between the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.

A new book by Jessica R. Kendall of the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law examines new and innovative approaches for helping at-risk adolescents who are arrested for behaviors that would not be considered crimes if they were adults.

The book, “Families in Need of Critical Assistance: Legislation and Youth Aiding Youth Who Engage in Noncriminal Behavior” is intended to give legislators, policymakers and juvenile justice and social service administrators useful recommendations to prevent adolescents from falling deeper into the justice system.”

(Source)

The book examines root causes for juvenile delinquency, describing strategies for early intervention and counseling that encompasses the entire family.

“Kellan is 17 and he is determined not to become a part of the adult prison system. He counts his blessings for being a part of the River Quest program at Youth Town. He started there the day after Christmas 2006, he said.

“I had violated my probation. I had a little drug problem,” said Kellan, who said cocaine used to be one of the drugs he used.

“I don’t look at the drugs like I used to,” he said. “Education is more important than getting high.”

Kellan said he started using drugs because, “I wanted to see what it felt like.” Now, he has dreams of going to college and studying business management.”
(source)

As often as we hear about the tragic consequences of teenage drug addiction, sometimes the teens who successfully reverse their downward spiral are overlooked.

The above quote is typical of those teens who successfully complete a drug rehabilitation program on the campuses of the many troubled teen boarding schools who specialize in working with drug addicted teens.

When searching for a troubled teen boarding school,boot or brat camp, keep in mind that there are schools and camps that are centered on a particular faith such as the Christian oriented camp featured in the article quoted above. Be sure to check with your church or synagogue to see which faith based teen rehab programs that they can recommend.

And please take heart that there are thousands of success stories about the troubled teen who finally “gets it”.