by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Judge James Milliken enjoyed the greatest success turning young offenders’ lives around when he sentenced them to read.
There were, of course, other provisions, he said at the monthly meeting of the Jacksonville Bar Association. Closer supervision, drug testing and drug treatment.
But helping young offenders learn how to read was the key, he said. Without that, he knew he was fated to see the same faces over and over, growing older, harder.
“We did a reading test on the kids in Juvenile Hall,” said Milliken. “We figured out that 66 percent of them were reading below a fourth-grade level. On average, their grade level was 10th.”
Milliken has served since 1996 as presiding judge of the Juvenile Court of San Diego County. He has presided over Family Court since 2002.
He has led efforts to reform the operations and outcomes of the juvenile delinquency and juvenile dependency (child abuse and neglect) systems.
State Attorney Harry Shorstein introduced the judge to the audience of about 170 judges and lawyers at the luncheon last week at the Omni.
Jim Moseley Jr., president of the JBA, encouraged members to sign up for a program to increase reading efforts in Jacksonville.
“I think it’s important because it represents two aspects of the Bar Association,” he said. “Number one, working with the judicial system to make improvements; number two, to serve our community.
“I cannot think of a better way to serve our community than to assist the literacy rate in Jacksonville.”
The lunch crowd earlier heard from Ch. 4’s Deborah Gianoulis. They also watched four minutes of a documentary she is developing about helping the vast number of children who have trouble reading.
Seventy percent of ninth-graders don’t read at grade level, she said. Between 20 and 30 percent of all children have difficulty learning to read. Forty-seven percent of the adult population in Northeast Florida are considered functionally illiterate.
“A child who cannot read well suffers greatly,” said Circuit Court Judge Karen Cole. “He is likely to be retained a grade or more, to lack self-esteem and become angry and depressed. She is at greater risk of dropping out of school, using illegal drugs and violating the law.”
Now there are ways to spot children who may be headed for reading problems, Cole said. And there are ways to help them.
Dyslexia, she said, is a neurobiological problem that often runs in families and develops before a child is born
“Happily,” she said, “the research has definitely established what is effective to help a dyslexic child learn to read.”
Members of the JBA who sign up to help “will be trained by Ph.D-level school psychologists in the basics of reading research,” said Cole. “They will be provided booklets on reading from the federal government, a list of credible websites and other written information.”
The JBA will then offer the services of these volunteers for meetings of local civic groups.
San Diego County was releasing 5,000 young people every year from “custodial settings” into the community, Milliken said. Most were required to make amends for their behavior, perform community service, write letters of apology and pay restitution.
They also had to go to school, stay clean and sober, be home early “and stop hanging out with the guys who got them in trouble,” he said.
Most ignored the orders.
“Eighty percent of the kids who committed serious felonies were kids who were already on probation to our court,” said Milliken. “Over 80 percent of these kids had drug issues. Seventy-one percent were high when they were booked in Juvenile Hall.”
Even those who completed drug treatment and stayed sober for a year had problems. Those who could not read were bound to drift back into old habits.
Milliken became aware of, and took advantage of, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes.
Three reading teachers were placed in camps where juvenile offenders go for 12 weeks of drug treatment before transferring to an outpatient program. The juveniles were grouped according to their strengths or deficiencies. Tutors worked with three to five at a time.
Those who got into intervention, and stuck with it, “jumped four, five and six grade levels,” said Milliken. “They became readers.”
“I would submit to you that, in the matter of recidivism reduction — and the ethics of the juvenile justice system — to remediate the kids’ problems so they don’t come back into the system, we have an obligation to teach them to read,” he added. “As a practical matter, as a matter of public health and public safety, we need to teach all kids to read.”