PLENARY SESSIONS
Focus on Youth
Ruth Sanchez-Way, Ph.D.
Acting Director
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention
Department of Health and Human Services
United States
The reason why most of us are in the business
of substance abuse prevention and treatment is
because of our young people. We’re in this
because we love our young people. We know
that they have great potential and that we want
to give them all the opportunities that we’ve had
in life and maybe even more. So, our focus this
afternoon, while it is the closing session, is on
youth, I think that they are really primary in our
concerns and in our hearts. The youth
component of this conference has been meeting
the past two days and they have broken up into
four discussion groups and are going to present
to us their discussion points, their ideas, and
their recommendations. We have four youth
representatives who will present the
information. And the presenters are: from
Mexico, Maria Christina Diaz Jimenez and Carlos
Espinoza. From the U.S., we have Carla Perez
and Ricardo Hernandez.
Report from the Youth
Maria Christina Diaz Jimenez
Carlos Alejandro Espinoza Dominguez
Mexico
Carla Perez
Ricardo Hernandez
United States
Today, fifty youth participants from the U.S. and
Mexico are here. Their ages vary from 13 to 30
years. Youth from different social groups, like
students, professionals, artists, indigenous
people and street boys. Youth from across the
Arizona border and from 32 Mexican states.
Topic of discussion: popular culture and artistic expression, sports
and recreation, communication, education and social movement, and community
work.
Recommendations. Establish a pilot youth
coalition between Arizona and Sonora to develop
activities and projects. Expand the pilot to a
national level coalition.
We would like to establish a pilot youth coalition
between Arizona and Sonora as a pilot project.
Mexico, as you know, already has a youth
coalition across their country. As a means to
expand into the United States, we would like to
establish a pilot project within the borders of
Arizona and Sonora, form connections and form
a similar national coalition within the country. By
expanding the pilot to a national level, we would
like to create a bi-national youth coalition where
connections between all 32 Mexican states, and
if possible, all 50 American states, are created.
We’d also like to establish a planning committee
with youths, adults, United States and Mexican
officials to gather the opinions of youths for
whom these projects were created, as well as
adult feedback. We would like to get their
opinions and suggestions on ways that we can
move around within our government, our
community and non-profit organizations, and
U.S.-Mexican officials to make this coalition
happen. We would be able to establish a bi-national
youth camp. This bi-national youth
camp would allow the exchange of ideas to
explore prevention. One way to exchange
addiction prevention strategies is to create
planning committees. Another way is the
exchange of cultural traditions. Among border
towns within Arizona and Sonora, in religious,
social and economic of Mexico and the United
States are very similar. They are inter-dependent
because, this is the border. We learn
from each other, we live with each other, so we
have to learn how to work with each other.
We want to establish a bi-national youth
camp, we want to establish discussion
groups in the four main areas that
were discussed previously: sports,
recreation, popular culture, artistic
expression, communication, education, social
movement and community work. By having the
exchange of ideas and traditions within these
areas, we have the best of both worlds. We
need strategies that the United States youth
groups have been using, along with strategies
that the Mexican youth groups have been using,
and that may be implemented bi-nationally. One
thing that we, as the American delegation wish
to commit to is the free flow of ideas by letting
Mexican youth travel within the United States
freely, without any reservation, without any
form of denials. We should be able to work
together to form communities and coalitions and
establish good ideas. As a means of doing this,
we would also like American students to go to
Mexico and to form an exchange of cultural
traditions as well.
The themes that we want to expand on for the
bi-national youth camp are, as she said, Manos
Jóvenes a través de la frontera, United Against
Drugs; a mixture of English and Spanish;
Spanglish as we call it. We are a global
community. We are a community engaged in a
society where nobody is just alone. Nobody
stands alone any more. Everybody exchanges,
everybody’s connected in one form or another.
Within Mexico, the local youth groups have
connected with each other, linked with each
other, and exchanged ideas with each other.
Among themselves, among their governments,
among their leaders and adults. That is
something that we, the United States, wish to
commit the United States government to. We
would like to know if the Mexican government
has committed to its youth, will the United
States commit to theirs?
Click to see the slide presentation.
Adolescent Treatment
Jorge Sánchez Mejorada
Researcher
Veracruzana University
Mexico
I want to welcome you to this closing plenary
session of this bi-national meeting. It is an
honor to be with you this evening, talking to
you, very briefly about the topic which, for me,
is a core issue. The participation of the youth, I
think, is fundamental and I use their
participation as a very successful event to say
that from the viewpoint of treatment of
adolescents we will also require their
participation. I think this is a core, or a key,
participation. I would like to tell you why when I
identify a specific point. One of the things, and
you youngsters know this very well, you who are
working on a daily basis with the other young
persons, you who have an impact on the
activities and mindset and lifestyles and fashions
and styles and mores. You who have also an
impact on treatment and recovery and have to
be aware of how important your role is.
Fortunately, those youngsters who have
addictions can enter into a recovery program
and link to other young persons who can
understand their problems and move forward
along this process.
I will briefly share with you a couple of
experiences, one of them linked with the
testimony of our young persons who have had
an impact upon my professional life. This
happened about 12 or 13 years ago when I had
the opportunity to listen to an alcoholic 16 year-old
boy. That broke away with many paradigms
because I have to confess that for me
specifically, alcoholism was a problem of older
persons. That was the medical model I had been
working on. And that addiction as such was
especially alcohol, it was something which was
never seen in early ages. The testimony of this
young boy really hit me. It moved me. And I
have to tell you that once in a while I have the
pleasure of seeing him again. He’s around 28-29
years of age. And he’s been able to take control
of his life and career. The great teaching was
that I could clearly understand that addiction is
a very complex problem. It is a disease if we use
the disease model, which I think is the one to
better understand addictions. The model can be
present at any age and much more so now that
at an early age many persons are using drugs
that have a high addictive potential. As you have
heard, the proliferation of the use of cocaine is
something that we more often see amongst very
young teenagers or young persons. And this is
something we have to be aware of.
About 10 or 11 years ago, I was invited to go to
a treatment center in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
called St. Mary’s Chemical Dependence Services.
It was quite a novelty to me and highly
stimulating. To find a place that had the
characteristics this center had. The young addict
and the adult addict were treated with a broad
range of strategies with a comprehensive
approach. Different needs were present there,
but everything was done with full respect for the
dignity of individuals. I thought that to be
fundamental. And since then, I had this dream,
a dream I have tried to make a reality
throughout this year. And I can tell you now,
that some steps have been taken in Mexico,
although much has yet to be done. And the
dream is that any addicted person, youth or
adult, can receive professional treatment, with
ethics, where dignity and an individual’s integrity
are respected. So, we have a lot of work to do.
Although I have acknowledged that things have
been done in my country, and that we have the
necessary foundations, it is now time to move
forward at a greater pace.
I would like to share some thoughts specifically
with the young representatives here. Treating
and working with professionals or volunteer
personnel, young persons, parents, persons in
recovery, what I have been able to realize is
that if you require passion and commitment in
many occupations, in this one much more.
When treating, when working in the prevention
and treatment of addictions, you’re required to
love your activity. If you believe in healthy
lifestyles, you have to truly believe so that you
can truly convey the message. Otherwise, our
words will be empty and will be left hanging out
in the air. So, we have to be passionate and
fully committed. And, I’m very pleased to see
that there are young persons from Mexico and
the U.S. that are getting involved in all of this,
because this had been the missing link. I hope
you continue moving forward with this
enthusiasm because adults and professionals, by
themselves, won’t be able to cope with the task.
It’s evident we need your participation.
I’m going to present to you some ideas here
which relate to treatment of adolescents. This is
a proposal based on literature reviews as well as
on direct observations made at treatment
centers in the U.S. and in other places including
Mexico, for example, the ones existing in
Colombia. Within this field, there’s a lot of work
to be done, such as creating different but
specific alternatives of treatment for
adolescents. With adolescents’ treatment for
problems of drug dependence and drug
addiction diagnostic difficulties sometimes make
it difficult to differentiate between abuse and
dependence. Young persons have to provide us
the guidelines to follow as to the degree of
intervention we should undertake. Going from
interventions which can use tools, the most
traditional ones, for example, individual
psychotherapy, family psychotherapy, or group
psychotherapy which is a very good approach to
be used with adolescents. As to the other side,
more intensive treatment: outpatient care, home
care, or maybe hospitalizations, with times that
may vary according to the characteristics of
those persons affected. The truth is, addiction
amongst adolescents as well as within adults
requires us to resort to strategies that require
home care. And this is, more or less, what I’ll be
talking about in the forthcoming minutes.
This is a specific characteristic in the case of
adolescents and which we have to address.
There are different needs, which I would
categorize into three groups: those needs
related to the development stage. In
adolescence, aside from any additional problems
they may be experiencing, we need to solve
specific issues. Certain things that pertain to
that specific development stage of their life.
Some authors call these developmental tasks.
You have to answer a set of questions and
arrive at a set of conclusions. Throughout this
process of growing up and in defining one’s self
in many senses, and getting to know one’s self.
And appreciating one’s self and learning about
our own individual potentials. This is a set of
needs that have to be undertaken and
considered within any treatment scheme. Other
needs are linked to the addictive process and
recovery itself. And the third group are the
specific problems like the case of the psychiatric
morbidity or dual diseases or parallel diseases to
addiction.
Here, we have some of the points I had
mentioned that pertain to that developmental
stage. The first one, the personal identity
responding to the question, “Who Am I?”.
Fundamentally, who am I? The definition of
sexual orientation, which is also a task to be
done during adolescence. Understanding the
definition and acceptance of the sexual
orientation. The definition of personal values.
Moral values. Ethical values. Spiritual values.
Religious values. Values relating to daily life.
That which is important for each individual. That
which each individual believes in. And evidently,
if you live in accordance with all that, there will
be a sense of well-being and be a feeling of
being a comprehensive person. Communicating
to others. Getting close to others and living with
others. Vocational choice. The sense of
belonging. All of us need to belong. But this is
fundamental during adolescence. To belong to a
group of peers, that’s very important. You have
to be a member of a peer group. One of the
characteristics of addiction is that it provides
individuals with a sense of belonging to a group
of peers that identify themselves through their
different behaviors. Well, in addiction recovery,
at a certain point in time, you can experience
that same feeling when the links are established
in a lifestyle which implies sobriety.
And lastly, to define a life project. The
understanding, the vision, that each individual
has as to life in terms of defining one’s self
mission. This is closely linked to values and
vocation. And it is also linked to all the other
areas of life. So, these are the things that have
to be considered within any treatment in the
long run when we treat addicted young persons.
And we have to walk along as individuals with
these adolescents in trying to identify answers
to these questions. The needs which are
inherent to recovery, that is to recovery of those
damages caused by addiction. Starting with
detox, through some drugs, this poses no
problem, but with other drugs it poses
problems, even within the medical and physical
fields, specifically, when we talk about opiates.
It is not common to see withdrawal syndromes
amongst adolescents because of the type of
substances used – at least in Mexico. However,
we are not exempt from having problems and
from having to address the situation. We have
to confront denial, because you know that part
of the characteristic of this addiction is denial.
When an individual says, no, I have no problem,
nothing is wrong with me; this is denial. And we
have to address the post-acute withdrawal
syndrome with a different characteristic. The
mental field, in the emotional arena, and even in
the physical arena. Emergencies, due to the use
of drugs such as cocaine, even after some time
after consumption has been suspended. We
have to support and foster healthy behaviors.
We have to rediscover or restructure cognitive
structures, a new way of thinking, a new way of
visualizing oneself, and visualizing life in the
environment, and the individual’s problems.
We also have to look at background information,
having to do with badgering or abuse,
psychological or physical. And also, we have to
consider HIV and early pregnancy. We have to
emphasize sports activity in contexts that will
allow socializing to take place. This is something
very important that has been somewhat lost.
Sport is an element of coming to know each
other and sharing with others in contrast with
the current trends towards this lonely kind of
sport where the only thing being done is
heeding one’s body, personal development and
self-pride. The recovery of values has to be
taken, values that have been somewhat lost
along the way. It enables those people to
provide a meaning to life through this
interaction and through this range of possibilities
and of interactions that are developed.
It is also a fact, as it happens within the adult
population, that some adolescents, aside from
having the drug addiction problem, they have
other psychiatric problems. And we could also
talk about other medical problems, but here
we’re just referring to the psychiatrists. And
these are some of the most often-seen problems
amongst adolescents, may they be drug addicts
or not. But when we’re at a certain point in time
treating addicted adolescents, we would have to
identify and/or discard the presence of any of
the aforementioned diseases to be able to treat
these diseases in an efficacious way. So, we
have schizophrenia which is a disease that
usually has its onset during adolescence or early
adulthood. We also have personality disorders
before 18 years of age. However, there are
certain traits that could somehow point towards
this direction and if we see these traits early, we
will then be able to identify specific needs that
have to be considered within treatment. And
also, it is important to know them in terms of
prognosis. The activity disorders, hyperactivity
disorders that have their onset during early
childhood, or anxiety disorders or learning
problems or disorders, these are the most
meaningful ones. This is a broad range of
disorders that can be associated with drug
addictions. And if they’re not detected and
specifically addressed, then the adolescent will
be at a disadvantage to use the recovery tools
available, and to be able make this cognitive
change and behavioral change being proposed
to that person.
Now, in trying to respond to all these needs that
I’ve mentioned already, here are some
considerations which can be used within a broad
range of therapies. First, we have self-help and
mutual help and these are main axes, and many
times they are confused but it’s quite clear here
that self-help is the help that one can render
him or herself, and mutual help is the help
patients provide each other. By now, you’ll see
how I help myself and how I help you. And this,
in turn, does help me. And another alternative in
these therapies is only you can do it, but you
cannot do it alone. This emphasizes personal
liability but also the need for help, an
atmosphere which promotes confidence and
self-esteem in the environment of the
teenagers. Many of these needs can be covered
and can be found within this atmosphere. It’s
not an atmosphere that fosters fear or terror.
But, obviously, what you need is discipline. You
need clearly cut standards and rules. These
rules should be established, especially in
dysfunctional families, and we try to deal with
them in the centers to make them as functional
as possible. This is difficult and sometimes we
become more dysfunctional than the families
that we have diagnosed as such.
Now, on education, recovery and new lifestyles
and abilities for being able to play recreation
and athletic activities and also occupational
activities. Service to the community – this is
fundamental. And therefore, I restate here the
efforts and the participation and involvement of
these young people that are here today. To
serve is something very important. From many
viewpoints, the one who serves, gives and the
one who gives also serves because you feel
useful. So, within the communities, service to
the community itself plays a very important role,
and group therapies play a central role. They
are opportunities for confrontation for
knowledge and also feedback.
The involvement of the family is also
fundamental. It’s decisive. We know that in
Mexico there are places in which the addicts are
often teenagers. The family deposits them as if
they’re dropping off a package somewhere. So,
if we speak of family involvement as being
fundamental and always very important in order
to help in this change process and to make the
necessary changes, this is one way in which the
family can be part of the solution to the
problem. We have to work intensely with them.
This is also a matter of convincing the family
that they must be involved in this fashion.
We’re also dealing with multi-faceted programs
based upon goals or objectives in which the
reinsertion which comes later is something that
happens gradually. The social and family
reinsertion. And, obviously, something that has
been said in many conferences these last few
days, is the importance of post-treatment, that
is, follow-up in which the prognosis improves
greatly if there is post-treatment that also is
long-term and continuous. I think this is
fundamental.
We also have much to do. In Mexico we know
this because the profile of the consumers of
drugs has changed considerably in the last few
years. Young people begin taking drugs younger
and younger and this is a problem, not just in
the major cities, but rather in many
communities. I have data in populations where I
never would have imagined that it takes place.
In rural areas they use controlled substances
and alcohol, but at younger and younger ages,
10 and 11 years of age, in fact. How can we
face this challenge? I think training is the golden
key. In order to be able to multiply the options
of treatment throughout the country, training
professionals must also train those who have
been empirically trained, along with volunteer
personnel who are more than willing to work
and may already work in this field. However,
many require the necessary training. Therefore,
we’d be able to work on models in which there
is intensive inter-disciplinary work taking place
where the gulf exists between the theories and
the professionals.
And also, there’s work on research. That is,
research on the impacts that we’ve seen in the
conferences and in the U.S. I think they’re light
years ahead of us here. But we can learn a lot
and we need to do it urgently. It behooves us to
do so. We also have to know that in Mexico very
good things are being done, but we don’t have
the necessary elements to say “yes, here’s the
data.” And the data supports this. This can lead
to the right path. We need to do it. There’s an
urgent need for this. And obviously, we need
funding. We need the funding from different
sources. From governments, Federal, state, from
civil society. Unfortunately, in Mexico, we do not
have a very altruistic culture in this sense – that
is, with regards to donating money. We have it
in other senses, ironically, so we have to knock
on these doors and we have to seek out other
options. In the case of state or municipal
governments, I see more and more examples of
situations in which they donate a house or a
piece of land, a property, or they are being
loaned. So, we have to knock on these doors.
We have to open them up and therefore, see
the participation of government agencies. They
are quite useful and obviously the participation
of professionals and of volunteer personnel
working together to respond to the problem and
to evaluate the measures so that in a few years,
we’ll be able to say we’ve done this. And we
have all this data, and we have a series of
studies which at a given moment will indicate
that we’re on the right path or we have to
change our path. And therefore, be able to
continue heading towards something we can no
longer delay.
I think the need has been created and the
response is already within us and around us. So
we have to start working. Thank you so much
for your attention.
Prevention for High-Risk
Youth
Susan Kunz
Director
U.S.-Mexico Border Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies
United States
We have a mechanism that some of you in the
room are also involved in. We have an advisory
group. This is to keep us honest, to keep us
focused, for you to tell us what you need for us
to do as representatives of the border
community that we’re trying to serve. We have
a meeting coming up very soon. There are
representatives from each border state and
several Federal agencies and some other local
groups. So, I encourage you to find out who the
representative is from your area, and use that
person as a conduit of information. They will
really be guiding the direction of our project. If
you don’t contact us, chances are we will not
fulfill our mission. These are the people that
can help you. They can help provide these
resources. They’ve very responsive. They’re
really nice. And they’re very helpful. And,
please take advantage of the U.S.-Mexico Border
CAPT, so we can help youth through good
prevention programs. Thank you.
Click to see the slide presentation.
Addressing the Needs of
Youth in Criminal Justice/Substance Abuse-Public
Health Programs
Eugenia Ortega
Superintendent
Karl Holton Youth Correctional Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facility
California Youth Authority
United States
Ok, thank you very much. And muchas gracias. I
am very honored to be here. I am very
impressed with this collaboration. Quite frankly,
I wasn’t aware that Mexico and the United
States were making such a conscientious effort
to work and address these problems. I would
like to also make an observation. Last year I
was also part of the panel for ONDCP in
Washington, DC when they were addressing
drug issues throughout the country. And, of
course, I was at the end of the session because
it dealt with youth. And, today again, we’re at
the end of the session. And, actually it makes it
a lot easier to do a presentation to half of a
crowd, but I want to challenge both Mr.
Schecter and Mr. Cordova, if we continue with
these kinds of conferences, we talk about our
youth being our primary focus. We talk about
our youth being the most important reason
we’re here. We talk about these programs and
the efforts being made so we can address the
youth of not tomorrow—as Henry said—but of
our youth today, and we leave them to the end.
So, I challenge you to take an observation of
that. I would like to see this ballroom full with all
our dignitaries here, with all our panel members
here. To listen to what they’re doing. I’m so
impressed, and I just compliment you all.
Let me just give you a quick overview of what
the California Youth Authority is doing. We are
an institution, we are a department that houses
7,500 juvenile offenders. These juvenile
offenders come to us through the courts. They
are sentenced by the courts and they end up in
the Youth Authority. We have 11 institutions
statewide, and four camps, which allow these
young men to establish, develop additional
skills. When these young men come to the
Youth Authority, obviously they’re here
involuntarily. And I’m going to address that,
because as you have heard throughout the
conference and the literature clearly speaks to,
is that providing substance abuse treatment.
whether it’s voluntary or involuntary, has proven
to have an impact. It has been proven to show a
change, even if the person is attending these
different services on an involuntary basis.
Our population in the Youth Authority, is 49%
Hispanic. Personally, that saddens me. Twenty-nine
percent are African-American, 14% are
White, 5% Asian, and 2% “other”. The Hispanic
population has increased from 33% in 1990 to
49% in 1999. That’s quite a change, quite a
difference in our population. And right now,
we’re looking at different treatment modalities.
They’re more culturally related, so that we can
introduce that element to our programs. About,
85% of our young men, come to us with
substance abuse, either drug related offenses or
drug related history. As a result, in 1994, the
Youth Authority decided that they needed to
look at an institution and totally dedicate the
services provided to substance abuse treatment.
So, in 1994, in Karl Holton, which is located in
Stockton, California, we housed approximately
410 wards. All the wards there address
substance abuse.
I’m going to talk a little bit about what we do.
First of all, the mission of Karl Holton is to
provide these young men the training, the
education and the treatment necessary to
establish a substance abuse free lifestyle once
they go out into the community, once they get
out on parole. Karl’s program is from 8 to 12
months. The literature clearly speaks to the
longer the stay in treatment the better the
success rate. So, we have an established 8
month program, but it can go up to 12 months,
depending on the particular needs of the young
men. It’s a transitional program. The literature
also states that if you provide these services
upon the end of their stay, while incarcerated,
you have a better success rate. In other words,
if the young men have a sentence of three to
four years, they will come to Karl approximately
one year before their release on parole.
Karl has an established therapeutic community.
Karl was established in 1966 with that modality.
Since then, obviously, many years have gone
by. We still have some elements and some
components of therapeutic community, but
they’re not as strong as were presented earlier
by Dr. De Leon. As a matter of fact, I took his
card because I want him to give us some
additional training and update our staff in the
therapeutic community. But we still have some
of the same concepts and elements that were
presented.
Karl is a three-phase program. When the young
men arrive, they arrive during an orientation
period. During the orientation period, they are
taught what we term social thinking skills. It’s a
cognitive method for these young men to learn
how to deal with their issues, resolve programs
and deal with their daily living while at the
Youth Authority. Upon completion of the
orientation, there is a 12-step Hazelton Program
that’s called Design for Living. It’s a modified
12-step program, that is used for correctional
settings. So, the young men go to school. In
addition to working towards their high school
diploma, their GED, they are also working in
school to learn the 12-step program. Once they
learn the concepts, in school, they have to take
a test. It’s all cognitive. Then once they go into
the living units, then the youth counselors are
supporting the treatment modality by doing
small groups, individual counseling with the
same 12-step program.
There’s an aftercare program which provides
relapse prevention and helps the young men get
ready for parole. They work on establishing,
what we call a personal life plan. I’m going to
address that in a little bit. They’re a number of
things that our institution does. We do have
statistics, of course. You always have to be
careful when quoting statistics because it’s all
relative. Karl’s success rate is: 64% of the young
men are able to maintain free from incarceration
within the first 12 months upon release from the
Youth Authority, greater than the Youth
Authority norm at 49%. So, we’re doing a little
better than some of the other institutions
because of the intensity of our program.
They’re all kinds of components. I’m not even
going to elaborate any more on the different
services that we provide. What I mainly wanted
to focus on in today’s session was on the needs
of our juvenile offenders and the needs of the
youth in the criminal justice system. Dr. Sanchez
earlier talked about adolescent treatment. He
already elaborated on all the key components
that we have that have been recognized as
different areas that need attention. So, I’m just
going to highlight a few of them. Number One:
there is a mental health concern. Twenty-five
percent of the young men sentenced to the
Youth Authority, or sentenced to Karl, are dually
diagnosed, which means that they have other,
maybe mood disorders, and anxiety disorders.
Some of them are schizophrenic and paranoid.
Some of them come to us with very extensive
histories of physical abuse or sexual abuse. So,
those needs must be addressed, needs that are
above and beyond the substance abuse issues
and concerns.
We talked about some of the other areas that
were highlighted, such as a sense of self-identity,
developing a sense of who they are.
Mind you, these young men come to the Youth
Authority at a prime age during their
adolescence. Their sense of seeking their self-identity
is no greater or no less than any other
adolescent. When you couple that with having
to deal with incarceration, it exacerbates the
situation. Particularly with self-identity, there’s a
concern of gang involvement. Most of our young
men have some form of gang affiliation. We
have extensive programs at Karl that help these
young men break away to denounce their gang
affiliation. And we have modeled a couple of
programs by using some of the 12-step
components and adapting them to gang related
issues. We’ve looked at using sponsors as
mentors. We also have a group called
Independent Status. These young men meet on
a regular basis to look at how they can support
each other to break away from the gangs. As
you well know, gang involvement comes with a
lot of peer pressure, so I think we need to
enhance the peer pressure on a positive note
just as well to help them overcome their gang
involvement, gang affiliation.
Family involvement is so crucial. Unfortunately,
that’s probably one of the most difficult areas. A
lot of times, and I have to say that particularly
my experience has been in working with the
Hispanic community, it’s very difficult to involve
the family. I know personally, my parents are
very private, very humble and have the “keep it
in your household” mentality. It’s just very
difficult to enlist the family in the treatment, in
the development. So, we’re trying to educate
them by showing them what kind of progress is
being made by getting the family involved. And
these young men are returning back to their
communities, it’s so important that they
understand the changes that the young men
have made and accomplished. But that’s very
difficult, I have to admit, very difficult to do.
One of the needs that is crucial upon preparing
these young men is to ensure that their plans
for parole, their plans upon release, are realistic.
These young men have made some very
positive changes while incarcerated. But, they
start establishing these very grandiose goals.
I’m never going to get involved in gangs. I’m
never going to do this. And some of that may
not be realistic. So, we need to establish and
assist these young men in establishing a
realistic, what we call a personal life plan. You
can establish nice, grandiose goals, but they
have to be coupled with very specific, concrete
objectives. That’s very important. And so we
work with these young men. What are they
going to do about school? What are they going
to do about work? In what areas are they going
to hang out? Are they going to be in the same
communities, in the same neighborhoods? What
are they going to do if temptation hits them?
What are they going to do if relapse occurs? So,
the personal life plan is very, very concrete.
In addressing today’s topic, which spoke to the
needs of the youth, I was reflecting upon our
work in the Youth Authority, reflecting upon my
experience in working with juveniles. And in
essence, it really comes down to the fact that
these youth have no different needs than you
and I. They really don’t. These young men or
women who are dealing with substance abuse,
want to feel important. They want to feel love,
and they want to feel cared for. Just like you.
Just like me. They want to have this love and
this care demonstrated to them. How many of
us are parents or children or spouses? And, we
know our parents love us. We know our children
love us. We know our spouses love us. But we
want to hear it. We want to hear it. I love you.
Honey, you did great today. We need that
positive reinforcement. The needs of these
youth that are in criminal justice have the same
needs in that regard. They want to feel
recognized. They want to feel important. And
they want to feel part of a bigger good. You and
I want to feel accepted by our families, by our
loved ones, by our communities. These young
youth also want to feel the same. They want to
feel that they are accepted by the bigger
community, by the bigger good, so, it’s very
difficult. It may appear simplistic, as I present it
in that fashion and in someways it is. It’s pretty
simple. But I know it’s much more difficult to
implement and to create processes and methods
and treatment programs to help them overcome
this desire that probably they’ve been neglected
by their upbringing, their communities, their
schools. Everybody has turned away from them.
So, it’s really important that we ensure that as
we deal with these youth, that we recognize
that the essence of their needs are very similar
to yours and mine. So, I challenge you all. I
empower you all to go back to your work sites,
go back to your communities and respond to
your youth, to our youth, that they are accepted
in our community and that we truly care for
them and we’re going to do whatever we can to
salvage this generation to come.
Thank you very much.
