Background
As most juvenile justice practitioners know only too well, the populations and caseloads of juvenile and
family court dockets have changed dramatically during the past decade. The nature of both the
delinquent acts and the dependency matters being handled has become far more complex, entailing
more serious and violent criminal activity and escalating degrees of substance abuse. Practitioners in
the juvenile justice system also recognize that the situations that are bringing many juveniles and
parents under the court's jurisdiction are often closely linked with substance abuse and with
complicated, and often multigenerational, family and personal problems. These associated problems
must be addressed if the escalating pattern of youth crime and family dysfunction is to be arrested.
Many justice system practitioners are also recognizing that, insofar as substance abuse problems are
at issue, the "juvenile," "family," and "criminal" dockets are increasingly handling the same types of
situations, and often the same litigants.
The juvenile court traditionally has been considered an institution specifically established to address the
juvenile's needs holistically. However, many juvenile court practitioners have found the conventional
approach to be ineffective when applied to the problems of juvenile substance-abusing offenders.
During the past several years, a number of jurisdictions have looked to the experiences of adult drug
courts to determine how juvenile courts might adapt to deal with the increasing population of
substance-abusing juveniles more effectively. The recently enacted Adoption and Safe Families Act of
1997(1) has added impetus to the establishment of juvenile and family drug courts by calling for States
to initiate termination of parental rights proceedings for children who have been in foster care for 18 of
the previous 22 months. This short timeframe for dealing with issues of this magnitude increases the
need for court systems to develop mechanisms to ensure judicial supervision, coordination, and
accountability of the services provided to juveniles and families in crisis.
Development of juvenile and family drug courts is proving to be a much more complex task than
development of the adult drug court. These drug courts require the involvement of more agencies and
community representatives than adult drug courts. Among the unique challenges presented are:
- Developing strategies to motivate juvenile offenders to change. Juvenile substance abusers often
lack the "hitting the bottom" motivation that adult long-term substance abusers experience and often
respond to in their recovery process. Juvenile offenders also frequently present a sense of
invulnerability and a lack of maturity, and are at different developmental stages. Treatment and
rehabilitation plans for juveniles need to take these factors into account;
- Counteracting the negative influences of peers, gangs, and family members;
- Adequately addressing the needs of the family, especially families with substance abuse problems,
some of which may have gone on for generations;
- Complying with confidentiality requirements for juvenile proceedings while at the same time,
obtaining necessary information to meaningfully address the juvenile's problems and progress; and
- Responding to the numerous developmental changes that occur in the lives of the juveniles while
they are under the court's jurisdiction.
The development of juvenile and family drug courts has, therefore, required special strategies to
address these and other issues that emerged during the course of program planning and
implementation. While the hallmark of juvenile drug courts operating to date has been flexibility, the
following characteristics are common to their approaches:
- Much earlier and more comprehensive intake assessments for both juveniles and adults;
- Much greater focus on the functioning of the family, as well as the juvenile and/or parent,
throughout the period of participation in the drug court program;
- Much closer integration of the information obtained during the intake and assessment process with
subsequent decisions made in the case;
- Much greater coordination among the court, the treatment community, the school system, and other
community agencies in responding to the needs of the juvenile, the family, and the court;
- Much more active and continuous judicial supervision of both the juvenile and/or family member's
progress in treatment and compliance with other program conditions and the various treatment and
other rehabilitation services being provided;
- Immediate judicial use of both sanctions applied for noncompliance and incentives to recognize
progress by the juvenile and the family.
Because juvenile and family drug court programs are relatively new and are still evolving, they need to
continually "retool" if they are to stay abreast of the needs of their target populations. Most programs,
for example, characterize the extent of drug use among the participating juveniles as increasingly more
severe. Most also report the age at first use among participants to be commonly between 10 and 14
years, although earlier use is being detected. During 1995 and 1996, when the first juvenile drug courts
developed, the primary drugs used by juvenile participants were reported to be alcohol and marijuana.
More recently, however, there appears to be increasing use of other substances, particularly
methamphetamine, crack/cocaine, heroin, and toxic inhalants.
1. Public Law 105-89. Sec. 103.111 Stat. 2115.
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