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Let's Shut Down the Foster Care to Prison Pipeline

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Let's Shut Down the Foster Care to Prison Pipeline

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Foster care and more placements within foster care correlate with a much higher risk of entering the justice system. Girls are affected much more than boys (Cummings, 2019).

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RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE JIM CASEY INITIATIVE

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RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE JIM CASEY INITIATIVE

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"Continually providing young people with opportunities to connect with their families and communities;

"Encouraging them to build on strengths and talents;

"Helping them advocate for themselves and be active in their own planning and decision making; and

"Promoting practices based on an understanding that “just as early maltreatment and subsequent trauma can negatively impact brain development, positive experiences during adolescence can strengthen healthy neural connections and promote learning.”

"The report recommends that all states extend “developmentally appropriate foster care” services to age 21, so that young people continue to receive support as they transition to employment, higher education, and more permanent living situations. The federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 appropriates funds for states to extend foster care beyond age 18. So far, however, only 11 states are exercising that option, and experts say improvements are needed in how the law is implemented.

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The Allstate insurance company has an advertisement picturing a model of a brain on a pedestal-the kind you might see in a doctor's office-with a telltale chunk missing. "Why do most 16-year-olds drive like they're missing a part of their brain?" it reads. "Because they are."

Anyone who has raised teenagers knows they can be prone to outrageous and even foolhardy behavior. The ad makes the case for graduated driver licensing laws on the grounds that teenagers are more likely to take risks-and thus cause more crashes-because their brains haven't fully matured. "The underdeveloped area is called the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. It plays a critical role in decision making, problem solving and understanding future consequences of today's actions. Problem is, it won't be fully mature until they're into their 20s," states the Allstate ad.

The science that this ad is based on doesn't just apply to teen driving behavior. It is also the driving force behind a campaign by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative to ensure that older youth aging out of foster care get the support and make the lasting adult connections they need to be successful and productive.

For many years, brain development was believed to be essentially complete by the end of childhood. But The Adolescent Brain: New Research and Its Implications for Young People Transitioning from Foster Care, a report released by the Jim Casey Initiative last fall, synthesizes neuroscience research confirming that in the teenage years, the brain undergoes a period of development-and a window of learning opportunity -similar to the early years. The report argues that young people's experiences are critical in developing resiliency, knowledge, and skills that can serve them throughout adult¬hood. Because of the brain's ability to be molded during this period, it says, the right interventions can help overcome the effects of early trauma.

These findings are especially important in shaping policies for young adults who have been in foster care, notes Gary Stangler, the executive director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. "We have a system that is designed for two-year-olds. We need to figure out how to connect older youth to families and other adults, jobs, and schools, and how to take advantage of the brain's activity during this time, because this really might be the last chance."

The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative was launched by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Casey Family Programs in 2001, fueled by the vision that every young person leaving foster care should have the opportunities and support needed for a successful transition to adulthood. Now a private operating foundation, the Initiative provides services to help young people aged 14-25 complete their education, prepare for employment, build savings and assets, and develop permanent family relationships. The Initiative, active in 15 states, forms partnerships with communities to improve practices for older foster youth, involves young people in decision making and advocacy, and brings evaluation results and research to bear in child welfare policymaking.

The adolescent brain findings provide a powerful platform for advancing the Casey position that youth do better in family settings than in congregate care, and that young people need permanent, loving connections with adults and connections to the right opportunities to exit foster care successfully.

The report argues that long-term congregate care doesn't help young people form bonding relationships with adults or learn to take appropriate risks in safe settings-skills they need to navigate the world.

"There are individuals who need a more highly structured environment and some who need it for short periods of time, but by and large group homes are not going to promote the social connections to adults and community that living in a family provides. It's not how people live, and you don't learn how to interact appropriately with adults," notes Stangler.

"Adolescence is a period of 'use it or lose it' in brain development," the report states. "When young people are actively engaged in positive relationships and opportunities to contribute, create, and lead, they 'use it' to develop their skills to become successful adults."

While the total number of children in foster care nationally has decreased every year for more than a decade, the number of youth aging out of foster care has continued to grow. More than 230,000 young people have aged out of care since 1999, ranging from 19,000 young people in 1999 to nearly 30,000 in 2008. Research shows that these youth are less likely to have a high school diploma, pursue higher education, or earn a living wage than other youth and more likely to experience economic hardship, have a child without being married, and become involved with the criminal justice system.

"The chemistry of the adolescent brain is what often causes young people to seek new excitement through increasingly risky behaviors," notes the Jim Casey Initiative report. "Young people need positive youth development opportunities so that they can engage in healthy risk-taking via constructive, meaningful activities."

The report offers several recommendations, including:

Continually providing young people with opportunities to connect with their families and communities;

Encouraging them to build on strengths and talents;

Helping them advocate for themselves and be active in their own planning and decision making; and

Promoting practices based on an understanding that "just as early maltreatment and subsequent trauma can negatively impact brain development, positive experiences during adolescence can strengthen healthy neural connections and promote learning."

The report recommends that all states extend "developmentally appropriate foster care" services to age 21, so that young people continue to receive support as they transition to employment, higher education, and more permanent living situations. The federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 appropriates funds for states to extend foster care beyond age 18. So far, however, only 11 states are exercising that option, and experts say improvements are needed in how the law is implemented.

Changing the Trajectory

Sixto Cancel, now 20, was removed from his home at 11 months old and moved in and out of foster homes, experiencing abuse, neglect, and isolation along the way. As he watched peers in the system age out and spiral downward without permanent relationships or supports, he took steps to change that trajectory.

Cancel chaired a leadership board for Connecticut youth in foster care and enrolled as an Opportunity Passport participant in the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, where he learned valuable skills to help him prepare for the future and save money for a car and an apartment. Cancel, now a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, is a Young Fellow for the Jim Casey Initiative and advocates for foster care reforms to benefit young people at conferences and policy forums. In February, he attended a Black Emerging Leaders Summit at the White House with True Colors, a program that does advocacy and training on lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender issues and helps mentor foster youth.

"What motivates me to do all these things is the fact that I grew up with a lot of anger, and this anger has manifested itself into the passion I have today to do better for my community," says Cancel.

Thanks to his perseverance, the Jim Casey Initiative, and the fact that his home state of Connecticut extends foster care assistance beyond age 18, Cancel is managing his transition to adulthood without a legal family. Initiative staff members, who visit him at college and are a phone call away, have become his go-to network. "I absolutely couldn't have done it without their support," he says.

Adolescent brain development has been gaining media attention in recent months, with features in such publications as U.S. News and World Report and National Geographic. The Jim Casey Initiative has seized this opportunity to promote nurturing environments for youth with troubled backgrounds, who, the report's authors maintain, still have a chance to make a better life for themselves.

"What we realized was that this knowledge was out there, but it hadn't been applied specifically to youth in foster care," notes Madelyn Freundlich, who heads Excal Consulting Partners and was a lead author of the Jim Casey Initiative report.

"We really worked hard to use the research to show that this is a period of dramatic development in the brain second only to early childhood, and that there are ample opportunities for adolescents to rewire their brains in very substantial ways."

The report's analysis resonates with audiences from parents to policymakers. "Anybody who has raised a teenager instantly understands," notes Stangler.

A recent roundtable hosted by the National Governors Association explored how to make best use of the new interest in adolescent brain development. "If one believes that this research can help set the direction for states, the conversation needs to be broader" to include all vulnerable youth, notes Susan Golonka, program director for human services at the NGA Center for Best Practices. "The conversation has really shifted to how what we know about the brain and trauma can better inform practices."

Legislators are taking an interest in this work, and states such as New York and Iowa have requested Jim Casey Initiative involvement in conferences to examine the implications for child welfare professionals, court officials, and the foster care system.

The Allstate insurance ad closes with a message youth advocates would love practitioners and policymakers to take away from these discussions: "Let's help our teenagers not miss out on tomorrow just because they have something missing today."

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Brain Research Points to Better Results for Foster Care Youth - The Annie E. Casey Foundation

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The Adolescent Brain: New Research and Its Implications for Young People Transitioning from Foster Care, a report released by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, synthesizes neuroscience research confirming that in the teenage years the brain undergoes a period of development - and a window of learning opportunity - similar to the early years of childhood.

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Senate Bill 739 would provide a Universal Basic Income for aged-out foster youth. If aged-out foster youth can be kept out of the prison system, the State will save money in the long run, and lives of vulnerable youths will be positively impacted.

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Former foster youth in California would receive $1,000 a month for their basic needs, under a new piece of legislation now being considered by state lawmakers grappling with widespread economic devastation during the pandemic.

Under Senate Bill 739 - introduced Feb. 19 by state Sen. David Cortese (D) - young people aging out of the state's extended foster care program at age 21 would be eligible to receive a universal basic income payment, or UBI, for three years.

The payments would be unconditional, rather than requiring that they show proof of work or study, Cortese said in an interview with The Imprint. The idea isn't to run "another old-fashioned welfare program," he explained, but to provide the kind of financial safety net parents often offer to their adult children.

Former foster youth April Barcus said even before the pandemic wrecked low-income people's finances, California's housing costs kept many of her peers from building savings and a sense of security.

"Even if you work a minimum wage job full-time, it's not enough," Barcus said. "You're always working and you're always behind."

The concept of a UBI payment for former foster youth recently received strongendorsement from University of Chicago social work professor Mark Courtney, a leading researcher on young people aging out of the child welfare system. In a Feb. 5 report published by the nonprofit news outlet The Appeal, Courtney advocated for guaranteed direct cash assistance to help young adults "bridge the gap" from state care to independence.

Courtney makes this case after spending decades surveying thousands of young adults across the country on the hardships they face after leaving the system.

"The government functions as their parent, and then swiftly extinguishes financial support, depriving foster kids of the safety net that so many of their peers increasingly find necessary," wrote Courtney and co-author Shanta Trivedi, a fellow at Georgetown University Law Center.

Former foster youth struggle far more than other young adults with homelessness, educational delays and the criminal justice system.

Without that support, former foster youth struggle far more than other young adults with homelessness, educational delays and the criminal justice system. And despite foster care payments that now end at age 21, that cut-off has become a new perilous precipice, upending students working toward their degrees and pushingy oung parents into poverty, the researchers stated.

"A basic income program gives them a chance at solvency and a stable future," Courtney and Trivedi wrote.

Sen.Cortese advocates for the approach based on his experiencein Santa Clara County, where he served on the Board of Supervisors for 12 years prior to becoming a state senator in December. An ongoing local pilot program there provides former foster youth with $1,000 a month, similar to what Cortese would like to see on a statewide level.

"We learned even more about the need than we perhaps knew in the first place," Cortese said of county staff and elected leaders. "There's just a tremendous need, and the pandemic has exacerbated everything."

Barcus said while she supports Cortese's bill,she worries that the program would exclude many former foster youth in need. In the bill's current language, participation in the UBI program would be contingent upon remaining in extended foster care until age 21, which would not apply to all young people raised in the system - some of whom may have been adopted or briefly lived with families as teenagers but were later cast out on their own.

"Just because someone is in a guardianship doesn't mean they'll be supported after they're 18," said Barcus, who has spent years advocating for foster youth in the state capitol.

Stockton, California, made national headlines last year for its 18-month pilot programoffering $500 monthly to a random sample of residents. Early data from the city's analysis suggests that recipients are largely spending the extra funds on basic necessities - food, utilities, clothing and car repairs. Participants in a two-year UBI pilot in Finland felt happier and less stressed, and grew to have more trust in government institutions, researchers there found.

While the idea of a universal basic income as a way to combat poverty may have been new to many when Andrew Yang brought it to the presidential primary debate stage in 2018, it is quickly gaining popularity.

The pilot in Santa Clara County was the first time a UBI was offered specifically to foster youth, according to Courtney and Trivedi.

Cortese's bill to spread the benefit statewide is still in the early phases and will have its first hearing in the coming weeks. Cortese's office doesn't yet have an estimate of what the program would cost. Both the Stockton and Santa Clara County UBI programs rely on private and philanthropic funds.

Cortese said he hopes that, if approved, the benefit for former foster youth could be an early test for expanding UBI toall Californians in need.

"Foster care has always been a great area to test institutional change," he said.

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Considering Universal Basic Income for Former Foster Youth - LA Progressive

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Former foster youth in California would receive $1,000 a month for their basic needs, under a new piece of legislation now being considered by state lawmakers grappling with widespread economic devastation during the pandemic. Under Senate Bill 739 - introduced Feb. 19 by state Sen.

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Aging out of foster care means immediate homelessness for 20%.

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Aging out of foster care means immediate homelessness for 20%.

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Listen to these youths share their stories.

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Aged out, put out, homeless and jobless. Welcome to adulthood

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If kids who age out of foster care had the same outcomes as the rest of the population, the State would save $4 billion. We save money by doing the right thing.

Foster kids need more housing support whenever they age out of the system.

The concept of a Universal Basic Income may not be tenable for all but would make a big difference for kids who age out of foster care (Tiano, 2021).

California has a growing  number of programs available for aged-out foster youth. They key is to help kids get through high school and take advantage of  them.

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Find Campus Support Programs

Starting college can be overwhelming and confusing at times for all new students. Current and former foster youth have the benefit of many support programs to help-from application through graduation. These programs may offer peer advisors and personal counselors, who can become your on-campus family. They can provide academic advising, housing assistance, tutoring, mentoring, financial assistance, special accommodations for students with disabilities, counseling, social activities and many other resources.

These programs are specifically designed for foster youth but services can vary considerably from college to college. Download this list of questions, then contact each program directly to get the best idea of whether the specific program will meet your needs.

Find Campus Support Programs

The California College Pathways (CCP) Campus Support Program database can help you find programs via several criteria:

Search by college:

Search by geographic area, type of institution or available services:

More Ways to Find Support

If a campus is not listed in the CCP Campus Support Program database, it may still have resources for foster youth. Contact campus foster youth liaisons directly:

You can also find support programs through the following:

NextUP
Support for educationally disadvantaged students

Additional Support ProgramsPublicly funded support for students challenged by social and economic barriers (EOP, EOPS, TRIO, CARE, CalWORKs, and Disability Services)

Out-of-State Programs
Links to support programs outside of California

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Find Campus Support Programs | California College Pathways

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Find Campus Support Programs Starting college can be overwhelming and confusing at times for all new students. Current and former foster youth have the benefit of many support programs to help-from application through graduation. These programs may offer peer advisors and personal counselors, who can become your on-campus family.

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Family reunification is the goal for over half of children entering foster care. Most of these children are indeed reunified with their families. However, more children are spending more years in the system. Too many age out and face a lack of family support at age 18. Those who age out of foster care have worse outcomes than non-aged-out peers on every measure of well-being, including housing, incarceration, education, earning power, sexual health and early pregnancy.

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Two-thirds of older teens leave foster care by aging out. 20% of those who age out immediately face homelessness (Courtney et al., 2019).

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Placement changes for foster youth can subject them to different graduation requirements for each school district.  AB 167/216 helps address this issue by allowing foster youth to choose between streamlined or school district graduation requirements.

75% of foster youth perform below grade level.

While 70% of foster kids say that they want to go to college, only 3% of children who age out of foster care will EVER earn a college degree.

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75% of girls who age out of the foster care system experience pregnancy by age 21.

33% of non-foster youth have been pregnant by age 21.

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                                                  Bibliography

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                                                  Bibliography

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Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2012, May 2). Brain research points to better results for foster CARE Youth. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.aecf.org/blog/better-results-for-foster-care-youth-a-no-brainer/

Barrat, V., & Berliner, B. (2011). The invisible Achievement Gap: Education outcomes of students in foster care in California's public schools. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.wested.org/resources/the-invisible-achievement-gap-education-outcomes-of-students-in-foster-care-in-californias-public-schools-part-1/#

CDSS programs. (2021). Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/cdss-programs/foster-care/california-foster-youth-education-resource-hub/college

Courtney, M. E., Okpych, N. J., Park, K., Harty, J., Feng, H., Torres-García, A., & Sayed, S. (2018). Findings from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH): Conditions of youth at age 21. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

Cummings, W. (2019, April 28). The foster-care-to-prison pipeline. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://psychcentral.com/blog/foster-care/2019/04/the-foster-care-to-prison-pipeline#2

Find campus support programs. (2016). Retrieved March 10, 2021, from http://www.student.cacollegepathways.org/find-campus-support-programs/

Hohman, M. (2016, March 10). Average Age of First-Time Moms Around the World. Retrieved from https://www.whattoexpect.com/wom/pregnancy/0310/how-old-is-the-average-first-time-mom-where-you-live

KansasCityStarVideo. (2020, January 03). Aged out, put out, homeless and jobless. welcome to adulthood. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-mw83-PU8

Tiano, S. (2021, March 8). Considering Universal Basic Income for Former Foster Youth. Retrieved from laprogressive.com/universal-basic-income-for-former-foster-youth/

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"Officials said the average age of a juvenile human trafficking victim in California is between 12 and 14 years old, and 70 percent of victims come from the foster care system" (Martin, E. & Wolfe, C., 2018).

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This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Officials announced the results of a three-day statewide crackdown on human trafficking crimes and rescue of victims on Tuesday, saying the most recent sting netted 510 arrests.

A total of 56 trafficking victims were also rescued in the operation, which took place last week and was led by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department with the cooperations of 85 other federal, state and local agencies.

The results of the fourth-annual series of raids known as "Operation Reclaim and Rebuild" - which refers to the goal of helping victims of the sex industry to reclaim and rebuild their lives - were presented by L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell during a news conference at the sheriff's headquarters in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday.

McDonnell described the sting as a "three-day assault on one of the most heinous crimes of modern times: the sexual exploitation of another human being for profit."

Of the 56 victims rescued, 11 were juveniles, and all were female. Officials said the average age of a juvenile human trafficking victim in California is between 12 and 14 years old, and 70 percent of victims come from the foster care system, but did not provide details on the specific victims rescued this week.

Officials are working with the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking to rehabilitate the victims.

Among the 510 suspected criminals arrested were 30 men suspected of trafficking and 178 "so-called Johns," or men who purchase sex as a service, McDonnell said, along with others suspected of "internet crimes against children" and other unspecified offenses.

"We will never stop coming after you, arresting you, prosecuting you and throwing you in jail," McDonnell said.

The sheriff recounted one arrest conducted Tuesday by the Milpitas Police Department after a man dressed in "full police uniform" and carrying a weapon was allegedly found sexually assaulting a human trafficking victim. The man was later determine to already be on felony probation and wanted on suspicion of similar crimes, McDonnell said.

The enforcement spanned several California counties and included Las Vegas - but it was not confined to the streets. Detectives also used the internet to pose and minors and perform stings on those who attempted to pay them for sex or pimp them, according to McDonnell.

In on case, a detective in South L.A. posed as 16-year-old girl on the internet and was solicited by a 56-year-old man who was arrested after traveling 35 miles to have sex with her. Investigators say he acknowledged that she was allegedly a minor.

McDonnell also discussed a new initiative he hopes will "disrupt the demand side" of the market by using bots to communicate with suspected online predators.

The department places decoy ads that connect those soliciting sex to a bot programmed to converse with them. In three days, the bots exchanged over 3,100 text messages with 200 men seeking to purchase sex, McDonnell said.

"The conversations were concluded with the admonishment that their activity was illegal, exploitive and no longer completely anonymous," McDonnell said. "The disruption technique is specifically designed to let the buyer beware that law enforcement is aware of their actions and educate them about the consequences of those actions."

L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey also spoke at the news conference, saying her office is working to secure lengthy sentences for sexually exploitative crimes.

Last year, there were 200 human trafficking cases filed by the L.A. County District Attorney's Office, and some resulted in life sentences for traffickers. "That would not have happened five years ago," Lacey said.

McDonnell explained that sex work has become more lucrative than the drug trade, since sex as a service can be sold repeatedly and the internet makes the crimes relatively low risk.

Since the "Operation Reclaim and Rebuild" raids began in November 2015, more than 221 victims have been rescued, among then 157 children. Another 948 people have been arrested: 274 on suspicion of buying sex, 375 on suspicion of trafficking related offenses, 146 for internet crimes against children and the rest for miscellaneous other crimes, according to McDonnell.

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Officials Announce 510 Arrests in Statewide Human Trafficking Crackdown

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Officials announced the results of a three-day statewide crackdown on human trafficking crimes and rescue of victims on Tuesday, saying the most recent sting netted 510 arrests. A total of 56 trafficking victims were also rescued in the operation, which took place last week and was led by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department with [...]