Judges’ Perceptions of Screening, Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment for Substance Use, Mental Health, and HIV among Juveniles on Community Supervision: Results of a National Survey

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/jfcj.12094
Published date01 September 2017
Date01 September 2017
Judges’ Perceptions of Screening, Assessment,
Prevention, and Treatment for Substance
Use, Mental Health, and HIV among Juveniles
on Community Supervision: Results of a
National Survey
By Christy K. Scott, Arthur J. Lurigio, and Michael L. Dennis
ABSTRACT
Juvenile Justice-Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the
Legal System (JJ-TRIALS) National Survey was funded in part to describe the cur-
rent status of screening, assessment, prevention and treatment for substance use,
mental health, and HIV for youth on community supervision within the US juvenile
justice system. Surveys were administered to community supervision agencies and
their primary behavioral healthcare providers, as well as the juvenile or family court
judge with the largest caseload of youth on community supervision. This article pre-
sents the findings from the judges’ survey. Survey results indicated juvenile and
Christy K. Scott, Ph.D., is the Director of the Lighthouse Institute and the Illinois Survey Labora-
tory, Chestnut Health Systems, Chicago, IL. Her research focuses on understanding and predicting how peo-
ple move through the cycles of substance use, crime, treatment, incarceration, and periods of recovery, as
well as how to experimentally test strategies for improving recovery management over time.
Arthur J. Lurigio, Ph.D., a psychologist, is Senior Associate Dean for Faculty in the College of Arts
and Sciences and a professor of criminal justice and criminology and psychology, Loyola University Chicago.
Named a 2003 Faculty Scholar, the highest honor bestowed on senior faculty at Loyola, he was also named a
Master Researcher in 2013 by the College of Arts and Sciences in recognition of his continued scholarly pro-
ductivity.
Michael L. Dennis, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Psychologist at the Lighthouse Institute and Direc-
tor of the GAIN Coordinating Center at Chestnut Health Systems, Normal, IL. His research focus is under-
standing and predicting how people move through the cycles of substance abuse, crime, treatment,
incarceration, and periods of recovery, as well as how to experimentally test strategies for improving recovery
management over time.
This article was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Grant U01DA036221. The
authors thank Rod Funk and Brittany Moody for their assistance in preparing the manuscript, Dr. Bruce
Spenser for developing and supervising the sampling and weighting strategies, and respondents for complet-
ing the survey. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Christy K Scott, Director,
Lighthouse Institute, Chestnut Health Systems, 221 W. Walton Chicago, IL 60610; Phone: (312) 664-
4321; Fax: 312-664-4324; Email: cscott@chestnut.org.
Juvenile and Family Court Journal 68, No. 3
©2017 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
5
family court judges were open to innovations for improving the court’s performance,
rated their relationships with collaborators highly, and appreciated the impact of
screening, assessment, prevention, and treatment on judicial practices.
Key words: Juvenile Justice System, Juvenile/Family Court, Community Supervision,
Substance Use Disorders, Mental Health Disorders, HIV, Screening and Assessment, Behavioral
Healthcare Interventions, Comorbidity.
Until the 19th century, the legal system of the United States treated juvenile and
adult law-breakers alike (Fox, 1970). In the late 1800s, however, the country’s evolving
perceptions of adolescence as a developmental stage distinct from adulthood resulted in
critical legal reforms, such as age-segregated correctional institutions for youth (Scott &
Steinberg, 2008). Other meaningful, systemic changes appeared at the end of the 19th
century when the Progressive Movement fostered the creation of a dedicated juvenile
court (Rothman, 1978). Nonetheless, in the latter decades of the 20th century, the pas-
sage of harsh sentencing laws and other “get tough” legislation shifted the focus of the
juvenile justice system away from a rehabilitative social welfare model toward a more
punitive, just-desserts model for youthful offenders (Feld, 1993).
To counteract this approach to punishment, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act, originally passed in 1974 and amended in 1980, 1992, and 2002,
focused on both preventing youth from formally entering the legal system and treating
them for the underlying problems that fostered their engagement in delinquent and
criminal behavior (Finklea, 2012). In its basic tenets (core protections), the Juvenile Jus-
tice and Delinquency Prevention Act mandated the separation of incarcerated juveniles
from adults, the deinstitutionalization of juvenile and status offenders, the privilege of
treatment over detention for juvenile justice system-involved youth, and the reduction
of disproportionate minority representation in the juvenile justice system (Kelly, 2014).
The current study examined the attitudes and perceptions of juvenile and family
court judges regarding a wide variety of issues pertaining to the juvenile justice system and
community supervision practices in the United States. In particular, the study investigated
both the needs of youth in the system as well as services available to them either directly or
indirectly through referral to address substance use, mental health and HIV risk.
JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM-INVOLVED YOUTH
Substance use disorders
Substance use disorders are the most common types of problems among juvenile
justice -involved youth, affecting more than 50% of males and 47% of females (Dennis
et al., 2009; Shufelt & Cocozza, 2006; Teplin et al., 2002, 2006). Substance use is one
of the most consistent predictors of continued serious offending among juveniles
(Dembo, Wareham, & Schmeidler, 2007). Among the 2.4 million youth arrested in
2000, 1.9 million (79%) reported substance use problems, were arrested for drug
6 | JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JOURNAL

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