Encouraging Positive Behavior through Individualized Court Responses, 0617 COBJ, Vol. 46 No. 6 Pg. 49
| Author | Jami Vigil, J. |
Problem Solving Courts
Jami Vigil, J.
Encouraging Positive Behavior through Individualized Court Responses
This is the first in a series of articles dedicated to exploring current best practices and common issues facing problem solving courts both locally and nationally. Topics featured in the series include individualized court responses, medication assisted treatment, prescription opioid misuse, and ethical considerations for judges and attorneys in problem solving courts.
Throughout the United States, communities are developing problem solving courts to tackle some of their most difficult issues. Increasingly, communities not only seek the traditional resolution of disputes among parties but also desire to promote rehabilitation (and reduced recidivism) through collaborative and therapeutically guided court programs addressing complex problems such as extensive substance abuse, domestic and family violence, mental health issues, and truancy.
This brief discussion outlines problem solving court principles of behavior modification through therapeutically guided and individualized court responses, formerly known as sanctions and incentives. This article begins with a few basic assumptions. First, not every court case is suitable for the problem solving model, and these court programs will never replace the traditional adversarial system. Second, for those appropriate cases, these evidence-based practices can be highly successful at achieving their ultimate goal of rehabilitation. Third, despite differences in the details, all problem solving court models share essential principles or elements. For brevity, this article will use a family drug court program as an example. Finally, the role of the judicial officer is not to act as clinician or therapist, and fidelity to the problem solving court model of multi-disciplinary teamwork is essential for good decision making and effective court responses.
Court–Community Collaboration
Whether it is a civil or a criminal court program, the goal of therapeutic jurisprudence remains rehabilitation.1 A dependency and neglect based program, however, requires additional goals and responsibilities. When asked to explain a family dependency treatment court, the Bureau of Justice Assistance came up with this definition:
A family dependency treatment court is a court devoted to cases of child abuse and neglect that involve substance abuse by the child’s parents or other caregivers. Its purpose is to protect the safety and welfare of children while giving parents the tools they need to become sober, responsible caregivers. To accomplish this, the court draws together an interdisciplinary team that works collaboratively to assess the family’s situation and to devise a comprehensive case plan that addresses the needs of both the children and the parents. In this way, the court team provides children with quick access to permanency and offers parents a viable chance to achieve sobriety, provide a safe and nurturing home, and hold their families together.2
This definition accurately reflects the essential mission of the Fourth Judicial District’s placement-prevention Family Treatment Drug Court (FTDC), in which family units remain intact, so long as conditions are safely managed, while parents actively work toward recovery and better, healthier decision making.
FTDC, like other problem solving courts, uses treatment services already widely available within the community. Treatment is individualized, so services may appear as traditional substance abuse treatment, individual therapy, group therapy, yoga, acupuncture, medication assisted treatment, or some combination of these modalities.3 The key point is that there is no extra special or secret treatment program offered only for problem solving court clients. What makes these programs different, often providing a treatment advantage to families, is the court–community collaboration geared toward promoting positive and sustainable behavior change.
Underlying the FTDC model is the view that extensive substance abuse by a caregiver has created and reinforced maladaptive...
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