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Do you know that girls enter the juvenile justice system for different reasons than boys? That girls are shuffled to programs outside their community because treatment programs in local and less restricted settings are unavailable?  That Florida leads the nation in locking up girls?

Most leaders don’t know what justice involved girls face in Florida.  That is why Children’s Campaign, Inc. has developed a full page advertorial with the financial assistance of The Florida Bar Foundation to educate as many as 100,000 of Florida’s foremost opinion leaders.

The advertorial, “Girls Are Wired Differently” will run in the October, November, January and February editions of Florida Trend magazine. Click here to read it. 

The demographics of Florida Trend reflect that its readers are those people who are most likely to have the ear of policy makers, and business, civic, educational and other community leaders who can best influence public policy.

Programs and policies must be gender specific to be effective. For instance, girls are more likely than boys to engage in self destructive behavior in order to ease personal suffering, whereas boys are more likely to lash out at others.  Girls referred to the juvenile justice system are often dealing with a host of problems different than boys.

Florida does not allocate the resources to treat girls with the therapeutic services they need, so the alternative is to lock them up, bringing with it serious issues of fairness and effectiveness.  The problems are compounded because girls make up the fastest growing segment of the Florida juvenile justice system for reasons other than violent crimes.

The Justice for Girls Initiative is pushing for reform in order for the state to properly deal with girls on the edge. Dr. Lawanda Ravoira, national expert on justice involved girls, and Roy Miller, President of the Children’s Campaign, are working with a wide range of citizens and stakeholder groups to create a blueprint report covering problems, recommendations and opportunities to better provide gender specific services.  Issues and solutions identified are being shared simultaneously with the Juvenile Justice Blueprint Commission launched by the Department of Juvenile Justice with the help of the Children’s Campaign.

The girl’s blueprint will be available soon for public comment as part of its development.

As a preview, some of the recommendations in the report include: developing legislation to redefine domestic violence in statute to family disputes; reducing the number of girls being held in detention; reviewing the current placement of girls in residential programs; determining if beds are being utilized properly based on needs of girls and public safety risk; and re-allocating funding saved through proper placement of girls to contract for higher per diem rates for residential programs allowing the hiring of additional and/or qualified staff to provide comprehensive treatment services and/or supervision.  Other areas address the involvement of local mental health centers in the treatment of girls and to provide transition services when girls return home; expanding community based options; and cross-agency collaboration and gains to be made if linking those goals with the work of the new Children’s Cabinet.

In addition to high profile efforts such as the Florida Trend advertorial, Children’s Campaign, Inc. will reach out soon using its online resources. We encourage all juvenile justice stakeholders to weigh in on this important document which will light the advocacy pathway for services to girls for actions to follow.

Thank you for speaking up for the girls of our state.