The Kansas Supreme Court just released a new opinion defining the rights of juveniles.  The court said that juvenile offenders do not have the same rights as adults to a preliminary hearing.

An adult accused of a felony may have a preliminary hearing.  At this hearing, the court determines if there is probable cause to try the adult for the felony.  Juveniles do not have the same right to a preliminary hearing.  However, the Kansas Supreme Court suggests that probable cause is needed to keep a juvenile in detention.

Today in Wyandotte County, Kansas, a juvenile judge will determine whether a 14 year old girl should be tried as an adult.  She was 13 when she allegedly tried to wrest control of a car from its 16 year old driver.  The driver was killed when his car veered out of control.

Trying children in adult court invites us to revisit why we have juvenile court in the first place.  Why shouldn’t all children be tried as adults?

Traditionally, juvenile courts have been justified by youths’ diminished moral culpability.  Adolescents have less experience than adults.  Recent science shows that their frontal lobes are not yet fully developed.  Frontal lobes are the part of the brain responsible for envisioning the future and making choices.

Most juvenile offenses are “growing up errors.”  Kids learn from their mistakes and move on.

In serious cases, diminished moral culpability seems less compelling.  I suggest that the true reason for juvenile court lies in the custody of the parents.  Children are not independent citizens.  They live in the custody of their parents.  If the act of a teen offender rises to a serious level, then the parents should lose custody.   Their child may then be tried– and punished– as an adult.

Foster children who participate in their court proceedings gain a sense of control and ownership.  They may  better understand the process.  The court gains valuable insight by engaging youth in solving their own problems.

Yesterday I attended a presentation in Lawrence, Kansas by the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law .  Their Youth Empowerment Project tries to involve foster children more actively in their court proceedings.

Courts must consult with foster children according to the federal Child and Family Service Improvement Act of 2006.  In Kansas, foster children are recognized parties in their court proceedings.  Nonetheless, sometimes matters arise in court which could inappropriately disturb young children.

Children are required to attend their juvenile offender hearings.  In custody litigation, children usually do not attend their trials.  Instead, judges use other means to solicit the preferences of children, such as custody evaluations and CASA reports.  Some judges will interview children in private chambers with only the lawyers present.

The Heartland Association of Legal Assistants invited me to be their featured presenter at their monthly membership meeting.  I had prepared a detailed power point presentation on special education issues:  eligibility, IEP requirements, and school discipline.  I printed the slides and distributed them before I began the address.

We never saw the presentation.   In my introduction, I started talking about juvenile justice for children with special needs.  As expected, this audience consisted of intelligent professionals.  They engaged me in a constructive dialogue about how inadequately our juvenile justice system handles cases for children with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses.  Our dialogue took the entire allotted hour, so we never returned to the original material.

Over time I will blog my thoughts on juvenile justice for children with disabilities.  In the meantime, I received a thank you letter from the Program Chair.  She wrote that she heard great feedback about my presentation.  She said the only negative was that they wished for more time so they could have seen my presentation.

Maybe next time.  I’m open to an invitation to return on another occasion.

Today I am counseling a 17 year old girl who was exploited as a prostitute for the past four months.  She confirms for me yet again that the sex industry preys on our most vulnerable children.

Over the years I have represented many adolescents who used prostitution to survive.  Most were girls, but I have worked with some boys too.  It isn’t much of an existence.  They usually combine prostitution with drug dealing and use.  They can survive that way for only a short time before they are used up.

Sweden has a promising approach that has reduced prostitution by forty percent.  They arrest johns and offer exit services to prostitutes.

Here is Kansas City we are fortunate to host Veronica’s Voice .   That nonprofit agency provides services to victims of prostitution.  It is named after a 21 year old mother of three who was killed while trapped in the prostitution industry.

Just now I received a call from a police detective.  He wants to interview my 17 year old client today to see if they can find the man who trafficked her.   I gave him some information and offered to help his investigation.

Last year I posted a poem from a foster child.  I have been worried about her for months.  She ran away in July.  She used to call me while she was on the run.  This time she didn’t…

…until Thursday night.  I was driving with my family to a Kansas University women’s volleyball game.  She called me out of the blue.  I was thrilled to hear that she was still alive!

Yesterday I visited her for several hours in a Mental Health facility.  She was detoxing from multiple drugs– both street drugs and abusive amounts of prescription drugs.  She said that she had not slept in a week.  I believe her, because she kept dozing off for a few seconds at a time while we met.

She said that she doesn’t want to stay in the “system” anymore.  She has been a foster child nearly her entire life.  I told her that she can’t live on the streets anymore.  She is a cute, young girl.  There are people who want to make lots of money using her.  I told her to avoid them, and to stay with people who consider her priceless instead.

I will work in the coming weeks to get her transferred to a place that is safe and appropriate for her.  She enjoys the outdoors; so, I might advocate for her to be placed in a wilderness rehabilitation program.  I’ll let you know on this blog what we find for her.

She would appreciate your comments in her support.  Any encouragement you give her could help to keep her alive.  If you post your comment to this blog, I’ll make sure she sees it.  Thank you!

Most teens who try methamphetamine say they started when they were age 15 or younger. Nearly a quarter of teens say that it would be “very easy” or “somewhat easy” to obtain meth. One in three teens believes there is only a “slight risk” or “no risk” in trying meth once or twice.

These national results were published yesterday by the Meth Project, a nonprofit organization based in California. They received wide coverage in national news outlets yesterday and today.

However, even our local press failed to research usage statistics in our own community. Had they bothered to look, they would have found that the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project reports meth use has declined slightly in recent years among 12th graders in Kansas. In 1999, 7.7 percent of Kansas 12th graders reported some use of meth in their lifetime. By 2006, that number dropped to 5.3 percent.

The number of children and youth labeled as bipolar increased 40 times from 1994 to 2003. The frequency of the diagnosis has increased even further since then.

The numbers come from a study just published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Many believe the jump comes from more aggressive diagnosis. Because of the size of the increase, some question the validity of the diagnosis.

Bipolar teens and children experience massive mood swings. During their manic stages, they may feel surges of energy and confidence. They might make grandiose plans that never come to fruition. They might also make impulsive decisions that violate the law.

These manic stages are soon followed by debilitating depression. They fail school. They might self medicate using alcohol and illegal drugs. As in their manic stages, they may make poor choices which lead to trouble with the law.

Families with bipolar children often retain my firm for representation in juvenile justice proceedings and special education. These families often find that the juvenile justice system offers little help. In many cases, inappropriate responses from juvenile justice might actually obstruct the family’s efforts.

Punishing teens for bipolar behavior won’t cure their disorder. Fortunately, a combination of medical intervention with mental health therapy can help these children become productive.

However, the pace of the medical and legal interventions might contradict each other. The juvenile court demands immediate compliance with its orders and conditions of probation. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist might need time to experiment with different combinations of drugs. Some of the medicines might need several weeks to take effect. Concurrently, your family needs training and community resources. Your child may require talk therapy over several months.

At the same time, the school system should evaluate your child for eligibility for special education and related services. If the bipolar mood disorder interferes with school, your child might need an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to receive a free, appropriate public education.

Our firm helps families with bipolar children in all these systems. We ensure that the juvenile justice system coordinates with the mental health system to keep your child safe and compliant. We advocate for the school to provide an appropriate education so your child can succeed and stay out of trouble. We refer your family to public and private resources to learn how to manage your child’s behavior while interacting with larger social systems.

You can get more done for less effort by acting before disaster strikes. If your child may be experiencing symptoms of bipolar mood disorder, seek early professional help.

I received this post from the Mental Health Association of the Heartland, along with a request to circulate it widely:

Kansas law adopted in 2001 requires health insurance companies to cover up to 45 in-patient days and 45 outpatient visits on an annual basis for treatment of biologically-based mental illnesses. However, recent data from the top 10 health insurance providers, as reported by the Kansas Insurance Department (KID), reveal that policyholders typically receive an average of six in-patient days or outpatient visits regardless of diagnosis.

The 2006 Mental Health Parity Task Force of the Governor’s Mental Health Services Planning Council suggested that there must be a significant number of health insurance policy holders who have had one or more of the following experiences which have resulted in the denial of adequate, appropriate or timely treatment since the 2001 Mental Health Parity legislation:

• Denial of claims for treatment of mental illness

• Excessive co-pays or deductibles for mental health treatment
• Refusal to authorize an adequate number of in-patient days and/or outpatient visits
• Inability to obtain or understand the standards and rationale used to deny authorization of treatment by an insurer
• Insurers recommending that “difficult” cases be referred to law enforcement or public mental health services
• Other problems with authorization of treatment of a mental disorder

We want to hear from individual policy holders, group health care administrators and mental health providers who have experienced any of these problems. Please share with us your personal written and/or oral accounts of your experiences.

We will listen to your experiences and help you, as appropriate, to file a formal complaint with the Kansas Insurance Department. To initiate a complaint with the KID, you may click on the following link to their website: http://www.ksinsurance.org/consumers/complaint.htm.

You may also put your concerns in writing and address them to the KID using the following contact information:

Kansas Insurance Department
Attn: Consumer Assistance
420 SW 9th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66612-1678
Phone: (785) 296-3071
Toll-Free: 1-800-432-2484
TTY/TDD: 1-877-235-3151
www.ksinsurance.org

Please let us hear from you if decide to file a complaint with the KID. We are collecting this information to better understand how to help Kansans get the care and treatment they need.

Senate Bill 380 was introduced during the 2007 session of the Kansas Legislature to provide health insurance coverage for the treatment of mental illnesses that is equivalent to coverage for other illnesses. Equal coverage is known as parity. We are hopeful that the bill will be considered in the 2008 session.

The lack of parity in coverage for the treatment of mental illnesses is a major factor in the perpetuation of the stigma associated with mental illness and a clear barrier to accessing treatment and moving toward recovery.

Thank you for your assistance with this effort.

Rick Cagan
For the Kansas Mental Health Coalition

Rick Cagan, Executive Director
National Alliance on Mental Illness - NAMI Kansas
112 SW 6th Avenue
PO Box 675
Topeka, Kansas 66601
785-233-0755
785-233-4804 FAX
800-539-2660
rcagan@nami.org
www.namikansas.org

A Johnson County, Kansas court yesterday sentenced Andrew Ellmaker to life in prison for the murder of his mental health worker, Terri Zenner. He won’t be eligible for parole for 50 years.

The defendant was 17 years old when he killed the victim. Because he was a juvenile at the time of the incident he was not eligible for the death penalty.

Sue Ellmaker, the defendant’s mother, pleaded for mercy because of her son’s mental illness. The victim’s husband, Matt Zenner, would have nothing of it.

“I’m sick and tired of hearing about mental illness,” he said at the sentencing hearing. “Stand up and be a man. You sit there and stare at the floor…. It’s beyond my comprehension that you were able to do this.”

As the husband of the victim, Matt Zenner is entitled to his feelings of loss, anger and bereavement. The family of Terri Zenner deserves all our compassion.

However, as a society we must overcome our prejudice that mental illness is both incomprehensible and inexcusable. Otherwise, we could face even more tragedies like Teri Zenner’s.

More than seventy percent of youth in the juvenile justice system suffer from at least one mental health disorder, according to the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice. For many of their families, juvenile justice provides their first and only access to mental health services.

Families raising a child with mental illness feel frustrated, overwhelmed and exhausted. In my law practice, we help these families by coordinating special education, juvenile justice and mental health services.

Andrew Ellmaker deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. The rest of us must work even harder to prevent future tragedies from happening.

Scott Wasserman is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He practices special education, juvenile law and child custody litigation in Kansas and Missouri. His web site is www.yourchild1st.com .