Essay on Juvenile Drug Courts

Drug courts are for nonviolent drug offenders. The offender’s can have misdemeanors or felonies, but they have to agree to participate. An initial substance abuse assessment will determine the eligibility someone has for the program participation (Alarid, Montemayor, & Dannhaus, 2012). Drug court treatment lasts one year and is based on a levels system. Phase one will begin with the most hours, a full time inpatient or 12 hours of outpatient per week. Treatment includes detoxifying in different ways including acupuncture, counseling, drug testing, and retina testing. Phase two begins when the offender is ready and progressing. As the patient progresses through and hits marks of success, the number of levels usually go down to less intensive outpatient treatment. And phase four is the final phase that needs to be completed before the person can graduate. With juvenile drug courts, parents are required to be there for the hearings and weekly family treatment sessions. Parents are needed to help with sobriety in the home through being good role models and helping their child (Alarid et

I can’t speak for the entire State of Texas but Travis County drug court is making a positive impact on offenders’ lives. Two judges who manage Travis County’s drug court are directing addicts into a court supervised treatment program instead of incarceration. Drug courts like the one in Travis County have successfully handled nonaggressive defendants with drug and alcohol addictions. People who complete drug court programs rarely fall back into substance abuse. Per four drug-court judges surveyed, about 10 percent of program graduates commit new crimes. That’s a recidivism rate of one-fifth that of traditional probation programs. Which shows drug courts can ease the strain on congested penitentiaries and save taxpayer money. A study done by

Not only do the eligibility requirements of drug courts vary across the board, but the way the programs operate and their outcomes vary considerably, especially when it comes down to how they choose to operationalize the ten key components (Carey & Waller, 2011; Mackin et. al, 2009). In 1997, the National Association of Drug Court Professionals published these key components. The first key component is that drug courts integrate alcohol and other drug treatment services with justice system case processing (NADCP, 1997). Being that the mission of drug courts is to combat the abuse of drugs and alcohol it is imperative for them to promote recovery through coordinated responses. The second key component states that drug courts should use a

There are separate drug courts for adults and juveniles. An adult court is designed to reduce recidivism and substance abuse among drug-involved offenders in the community. It also seeks to increase an offender’s success in recovery through continuous treatment, mandatory random drug testing, community supervision and use of other rehabilitation services. In juvenile treatment court, offenders meet frequently (often weekly) to determine how to address the substance abuse and other related problems of the youth and his or her family that brought him or her to the justice system (Treatment Court

The primary interest within the independent variable is to determine whether participation in drug courts decreases the probability of recidivism. To evaluate this concern, the current study will analyze whether receiving treatment in a drug court versus the comparison group of probationers will affect various outcomes. Finally, gender, race, age, and education will also be included in the analysis as control variables.

Drug court is an alternative sentencing program to rehabilitate defendants who were arrested for selling, using and abusing drugs. Drug court is not set up like the traditional court system within the criminal justice system, it’s a court system that addresses several issues defendants are going through prior to being in the criminal justice system and it also help reduce court dockets within the system.

This study on drug courts intends to systematically review quasi-experimental and experimental evaluations of the effectiveness of drug courts. With an emphasis on committing future crimes and continuous drug use. This report focused on the programs associated with the standard in the criminal justice system case processing. This review expresses the effects of recidivism in the long and short-term soundness with the current evidence along with the relationship reduction and effectiveness. Eligibility for drug court applies to a non violent offender, with proof of substance dependency. Drug courts stand on the concept that combines drug treatment with legal and moral authority in the attempts to break the cycle of addiction and the committing

In most cases, one of the main objectives of courts and the sentences they impose is that of rehabilitation. This is evidenced through a growing move in favour of a more holistic approach to justice, trying to address the issues which may have led to the crime, rather than just punishing the end result. One of the prime examples of this therapeutic approach to justice is the introduction of the Drug Court. Governed by the Drug Court Act 1998, the Drug court has both Local court and District court jurisdiction, and seeks to target the causes of drug-related criminal behaviour. It achieves this by ensuring that those who go through it receive treatment for their addictions, thereby reducing their propensity to reoffend, as many crimes are motivated by the need to satisfy addictions.

“Once the defendants accept drug court, they appear before the drug court judge and plead guilty to the crime or (more often) crimes. The defendants are then placed on probation; once they sign an agreement, they become clients of drug courts. In some jurisdiction a plea may occur in another courtroom, but it is always the best practice to have the drug court judge pronounce sentence. The sooner they can begin to understand the nature of the drug court and to comprehend that they are there to receive help and support, not punishment” (Roper, Lessenger 292). Once you enter the program you agree to turn over certain rights, making a commitment and vow to complete the program. Many times records of the program are taken such as photos to

What else does drug court do, reduce drug use, reduce crime, save money, (which think about the cost in housing them as inmates), restores lives, both theirs and their family.

Currently, drug courts have been proven to be successful at reducing recidivism of offenders. In the United States there are about 120,000 people receiving help in order to rehabilitate them and to try to reduce the chances of recidivism (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2011). These programs require individuals to participate in the programs for a minimum of one year. During this year the individuals are required to appear in court and be drug tested at

Although based on the adult criminal justice system, the juvenile justice process works differently. Juveniles can end up in court by way of arrest, truancy or for curfew violations or running away. A youth may also be referred to the juvenile court system by school officials or a parent or guardian for being continuously disobedient. The juvenile justice process involves several different steps including intake, detention, adjudication, disposition and aftercare following release from a juvenile correctional facility. In this paper we will breakdown the numerous steps involved in the juvenile justice process as well as compared some

Although youth may rely upon substances to function, some are seldom addicted to alcohol and other drugs in the traditional use. Youth tend to use alcohol and other drugs for reasons vastly different from those of adults. According to the Bureau of justice assistance, “The goals for the juvenile drug court is to devise a system for evaluation, monitoring, for successful recidivism. Juvenile drug court set out to develop motivational strategies to help adolescents, to stop their substance abuse. Although there actions may reflect those of an adult offender, the purpose is not to label them as criminals. The purpose is to help them to retract from negative influences of peers, gangs, and family members. Programs are most successful when they address the youth negative peer associations, as well as the often complex family problems that can play a major part in the youth behavior. The process of drug also includes weekly screenings to make sure that the youth is staying on the right track. The judge also have daily reports on the youth and the process they are making. Unlike adults, drug court for youth are not public, and are held privately, for their own protection and

The United States Correctional System is often challenged as to whether it wants to rehabilitate drug offenders or punish them, and because of this it mostly does neither. Even though drug abuse and drug trafficking are widely spread national issues, the mental, social, and economic costs of "healing" through incarceration are only making the "disease" worse. Never before have more prisoners been locked up on drug offenses than today. Mixed with the extremely high risks of today's prison environment, the concept of incarceration as punishment for drug offenders cannot be successful. Without the correct form of rehabilitation through treatment within Michigan's Correctional System, drug

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges have recently discussed their methodology of how to respond to compliance and noncompliance with incentives and sanctions that are designed to reinforce or modify the behavior of youth and their families. As one would assume, similar concepts, different approaches. The juvenile drug court takes a lot into perspective when using behavior modification strategies. If there is a desirable and an undesirable behavior in the same period, the JDC places weight on each of the behaviors. Recognizing the youth’s progress and accomplishments with praise, and responding to the infraction. Where the focus lies, whether on the infraction or progress, depends on where the youth is in the program, and the significance of the behavior. JDC says that our intentions don’t matter- it is the perception of the