Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Friday, March 07, 2008

Colorado Number One In Teen Depression

Colorado's teens top the nation in depression, and its young people drink, smoke and use dangerous drugs more often than their counterparts in most other states, a federal study shows.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report is based on responses by 136,000 people to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

It shows a sharp contrast between the relatively good scores on substance abuse and mental health enjoyed by Coloradans older than 25 and the poor scores by the young.

"We see a lot of teens that are depressed," said Mary Thornton, director of family services at the Jefferson Center for Mental Health.

"I'm not overly surprised" by Colorado's No. 1 ranking, she said, noting that Colorado in past years sometimes has ranked No. 1 in teen suicides.


Rocky Mountain News

2 comments:

Andrew Oh-Willeke said...

The Colorado paradox strikes again. Rather than building our economy on our own youth, we import young adults who are well educated, healthy, and "problem free" from elsewhere to fill the top slots in our economy.

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