Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts: Policy And Practice Scan

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jfcj.12173
• Author: Jacquelyn Tran,Kevin Earl,Kyungseok Choo,Anthony Petrosino,Sarah Guckenburg,Hannah Sutherland,Trevor Fronius
• Date: 01 September 2020
• Published date: 01 September 2020

Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts: Policy And

Practice Scan

By Kyungseok Choo, Anthony Petrosino, Hannah Sutherland, Trevor Fronius,

Sarah Guckenburg, Jacquelyn Tran, and Kevin Earl

ABSTRACT

As part of a research team on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention (OJJDP) Initiative to Develop and Test Guidelines for Juvenile Drug

Treatment Courts, WestEd conducted a policy and practice scan (also called an "envi-

ronmental scan") to provide data on a small sample of local Juvenile Drug Treatment

Courts (JDTCs) in the United States. This article is a synthesis of the information

collected from 25 JDTCs on their current operations. The article first reviews key lit-

erature on JDTCs, followed by a description of the methodology used in this policy

and practice scan. Then, the article presents findings about history, funding sources,

partnerships, structures and operations, treatment options, challenges, and successes.

We found little systematic performance evaluation or long-term sustainability plan-

ning among the participating JDTCs. Finally, the article discusses the limitations of

Kyungseok Choo, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Financial Crime Programs at

Utica College. Dr. Choo’s recent research has focused on juvenile drug treatment courts, school safety, sex

offenders and human trafficking, and identity and financial crimes. His research has been funded by state,

federal, and international clients.

Anthony Petrosino is Director of the Justice & Prevention Research Center at WestEd. He is also

Senior Fellow and Affiliated Faculty for the George Mason University Center for Evidence-based Crime Pol-

icy. Petrosino was the 2018 winner of the Robert F. Boruch Award for Contributions to Public Policy from

the Campbell Collaboration.

Hannah Sutherland, M.A., is a Research Associate with the WestEd Justice & Prevention Research

Center where she has supported research and evaluation efforts focused on violence prevention, adult reentry,

school safety and climate, restorative justice, juvenile drug courts, substance use prevention, and other pre-

vention efforts aimed protecting at-risk youth.

Dr. Trevor Fronius is a senior researcher at WestEd where he leads rigorous research and evaluation

studies in justice, school safety and climate, violence prevention, and other prevention areas. Dr. Fronius’

primary research interest focuses on a social ecological perspective of violence within urban communities.

Sarah Guckenburg, MPH, is a Senior Research Associate with the WestEd Justice & Prevention

Research Center. She has led or collaborated on a variety of research and evaluation projects focusing on

school safety, violence prevention, juvenile justice system diversion and reform, behavioral health, and other

public health issues.

Jacquelyn Tran is a Research Assistant at WestEd where she works on projects examining school

safety and climate, socioemotional learning, juvenile justice, and other health and justice focused topics.

Kevin Earl, M.S. is a Doctor of Philosophy student at the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice

and Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven where he serves as a Doctoral Research Fellow and

Adjunct Lecturer.

Juvenile and Family Court Journal 71, No. 3

©2020 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

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this study, implications for the new version of the JDTC guidelines, and practical

recommendations for stakeholders in this field.

Key words: Juvenile justice, Drug courts, Substance use disorder treatment.

INTRODUCTION

As part of a research team on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention (OJJDP) Initiative to Develop and Test Guidelines for Juvenile Drug Treat-

ment Courts

1

, WestEd conducted a policy and practice scan (also called an "environmen-

tal scan") to provide data on a small sample of local Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts

(JDTCs) in the United States. This article is a synthesis of the information collected from

25 JDTCs on their current operations and structures, challenges to implementation, and

any successes they recognize. This article does not investigate whether JDTCs “work,"

but instead provides descriptive research evidence to answer the question, "What is

going on?" Such description is needed, however, to determine what practices have conti-

nuity and should be tested. The article is organized as follows (1) a brisk review of key

literature on the history of JDTCs, (2) study methods (including our sampling reasoning

and the selection process), (3) data collection measures, (4) results, and (5) a discussion

including the limitations of this study, implications for the final version of the JDTC

guidelines, and practical recommendations for stakeholders in this field.

History of juvenile drug treatment courts

The origins of JDTCs are rooted in the challenge of dealing with substance abuse-

involved incarcerated juveniles and adults as a result of the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic.

As a response to the mass incarceration of drug-involved offenders beginning in the

1980s, courts began to also move toward a “therapeutic jurisprudence,” including how

to best handle low risk individuals convicted of drug crimes (U.S. Department of Justice,

2003). Out of this therapeutic jurisprudence philosophy, JDTCs were born. The first

drug treatment courts (DTCs) in the United States focused on adults opened in 1989 in

Miami-Dade County (Bryan et al. 2006, Powalski et al. 2008, Fradella et al. 2009, Ruiz

et al. 2009, Stein et al. 2015) and eventually grew to over 1,000 DTCs by the turn of the

century (U.S. Department of Justice, 2003). The number of juvenile offenders involved

with alcohol and other drug use rose during the mid-1990s, around the same time early

studies of DTCs begin to document success in reducing recidivism among adult partici-

pants (U.S. Department of Justice, 2003). The success in reducing recidivism in early

studies of DTCs spawned a similar focus on juvenile offenders (Volk 2014), leading to

the establishment or planning of approximately 265 JDTCs nationwide by 2001 (U.S.

Department of Justice, 2003). At last count, there are over 400 JDTCs operating in the

United States.

1

https://www.ojjdp.gov/Juvenile-Drug-Treatment-Court-Guidelines.html

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