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Program’s Potential Impact on Juvenile Justice
System Components
The implementation of a juvenile drug
court affects the operational activities
of existing justice system entities in
three principal ways: expediting the
timeframe within which various juvenile
justice system functions are
performed, increasing the level of supervision
provided for juvenile participants,
and improving the level
and frequency of communication and
coordination among juvenile justice,
treatment, and other youth services
agencies. These impacts are particularly
significant for the following
functions and entities involved in
the juvenile justice process.
Juvenile Intake
The intake function takes on special
significance for juvenile drug courts.
In addition to serving as the initial
point for obtaining background information
on alleged juvenile offenders,
the juvenile intake process becomes
the essential screening point for identifying
the treatment and related
needs of juvenile drug court participants.
It is therefore essential that juvenile
drug courts obtain comprehensive
and relevant information at intake
to determine the nature and extent
of the juvenile’s involvement with
alcohol or other drugs and other collateral
problems that need to be
addressed.
Juvenile Services
Juvenile drug courts must be capable
of promptly delivering an array of
services appropriate for each juvenile
offender. It may be necessary to enlarge
the scope of services provided
to substance-involved juveniles to
include in-home family services,
skills-building opportunities, and
mental health services. The intensive
judicial oversight each case receives
requires the juvenile drug court program
to be structured in a way that
will promote greater coordination of
and accountability for these services.
The Court
The frequency of review hearings for
juvenile drug court participants and
the coordinated service delivery and
supervision provided by the drug
court team significantly increase the
court’s contact with youthful offenders,
thereby increasing the youth’s
accountability to the presiding judge.
It is essential to develop specialized
docketing and procedures for emergency
hearings in the course of developing
a drug court program.
Prosecutor’s Office
Juvenile drug courts require prosecutors
to conduct early screening of delinquency
cases. Screening generally
involves an assessment of the circumstances
of the current charge, review
of the juvenile’s delinquent history
and background, cursory assessment
of the juvenile’s current social history,
and assessment of the juvenile’s substance
abuse history. It also is advisable
for the prosecutor to attend the
staffings before court and the periodic
status hearings conducted for
the juvenile drug court participants.
Public Defender’s Office
If the juvenile offender is assigned
court-appointed counsel, juvenile
drug courts require the public defender’s
office to (1) promptly consult
with eligible youth who need legal
advice before determining whether
such a program (if voluntary) is appropriate
for them, (2) participate in
the precourt staffings process, and
(3) attend the staffings and court status
hearings with the youth.
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Drug Courts Program Office |
| In 1989, several communities began experimenting with an
approach to dealing with low-level drug offenses that differed
from the approach of the traditional justice system,
which rarely provided substance abuse treatment to defendants
in any systematic way and, in many cases, provided
little or no threat of sanctions for continued drug
use. Local coalitions of judges, prosecutors, attorneys,
substance abuse treatment professionals, probation officers,
community-based organizations, law enforcement
officials, and others began using the court to force abstinence
from drugs and alter the behavior of substance-abusing
offenders. This new approach—the drug court—integrates substance abuse treatment, sanctions, and incentives
with case processing to place nonviolent drug-involved
defendants in judicially supervised rehabilitation
programs. As such, drug courts offer a way to eliminate
the revolving-door syndrome of drug offenders cycling in
and out of the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
In 1995, the Drug Courts Program Office (DCPO), under
the authority of the Assistant Attorney General, U.S.
Department of Justice, was established to make grants
available to States, State courts, local courts, units of local
government, and tribal governments for the development
and formation of drug courts.1
Grant Program
The Drug Court Grant Program is a competitive, discretionary
grant program designed to help communities plan,
implement, and enhance drug courts. From 1995 to 2000,
more than 275 drug courts became operational with
DCPO’s support. The grant program assists jurisdictions in
establishing programs that provide a multitude of services,
including (1) regular status hearings at which the supervising
judicial official reviews the defendant’s progress,
(2) appropriate and specific responses to a defendant’s
compliance or noncompliance with program requirements,
and (3) ongoing supervision through pretrial, probation,
and other release programs.
Training and Technical Assistance
Drug courts require justice system and treatment professionals
to step outside traditional practices and procedures
to achieve a nonadversarial, problemsolving
approach to treating substance-abusing offenders. To
facilitate this process, DCPO supports training and
technical assistance to promote and support best practices
in the development, implementation,
1 DCPO was created to implement and support title 1, subchapter XII–J of the Omnibus
Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3796ii–3796ii8 (repealed).
Although the statute authorizing DCPO was repealed, the office has been receiving an
appropriation since 1995.
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evaluation, and institutionalization of drug courts. DCPO enters into
partnerships with qualified organizations that have
expertise in the following areas:
- Team building, goal setting, and action planning.
- Substance abuse treatment and collateral services.
- Cultural competency.
- Court systems and case processing.
- Evaluation.
- Automated management information systems.
- Drug testing.
- Case management.
- Juvenile, tribal, and driving-under-the-influence drug courts.
Resources
The following DCPO publications can be obtained by
contacting the National Criminal Justice Reference
Service (NCJRS) at 800–851–3420 or visiting the NCJRS
Web site at www.ncjrs.org:
- Drug Court Monitoring, Evaluation, and Management
Information Systems. 1998. NCJ 171138.
- Defining Drug Courts: The Key Components. 1997.
NCJ 165478.
- Drug Testing in a Drug Court Environment: Common Issues
To Address. 2000. NCJ 181103.
- Guideline for Drug Courts on Screening and Assessment.
1998. NCJ 171143.
- The Interrelationship Between the Use of Alcohol and Other
Drugs: Summary Overview for Drug Court Practitioners.
1999. NCJ 178940.
- Juvenile and Family Drug Courts: An Overview. 1998.
NCJ 171139.
- Looking at a Decade of Drug Courts. 1998. NCJ 171140.
- Practical Guide for Applying Federal Confidentiality Laws to
Drug Court Operations. 1999. NCJ 176977.
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| Juvenile Drug Court Programs | JAIBG Bulletin
· May 2001 |
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