Theories of therapeutic evolution for juvenile drug courts in the face of the onset of the co-occurrence of mental health issues and substance/alcohol abuse.

• Author: Harvey, III, David L.

1. INTRODUCTION II. BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURES OF THERAPEUTIC COURTS A. Therapeutic Justice System Background B. Drug Court History C. Today's Juvenile Drug Court D. Medina County Juvenile Drug Court 1. Non-Intensive Phase 2. Intensive Phase 3. Drug Court Hearings E. Drug Courts Results: Recidivism, Costs and Community Impact 1. Recidivism Rates 2. Drug Courts Save Money III. JUVENILE MENTAL HEALTH COURTS A. Mental Health Court Program and SAMSHSA B. Santa Clara's Court for the Individualized Treatment of Adolescents 1. CITA's Key Personnel 2. CITA Eligibility IV. CO-OCCURRENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AMONG JUVENILE DRUG/ALCOHOL OFFENDERS A. Alcohol and Drug Abuse Among Juveniles B. Juvenile Drug and Alcohol Use Among Juveniles in Detention Centers C. Overlap Between Juvenile Substance/Alcohol Offenders and Mental Illness 1. Caron Foundation Survey 2. Phoenix House Survey 3. South Carolina Department of Justice Study 4. Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument Screen V. FEDERAL LEGISLATION A. President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health B. Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act C. Native American Alcohol and Substance Abuse Consolidation Act of 2003 VI. PROPOSED INTEGRATION OF MENTAL HEALTH ELEMENT INTO JUVENILE DRUG COURT SYSTEM A. Placement of Mental Health Element Within Current Procedural Framework B. Implanting Mental Health Assessment and Treatment C. Critique of Mental Health Element: Over-Inclusiveness D. Cost Concerns E. Issues Facing Court Personnel Training VII. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION

   Hidden beneath her bed lie four kitchen knives, three large and one small, each of them kept in order to protect herself from the shadowy men whom she believes she sees in the corner of her room. (1) These men threaten to kill her and often tell her to harm others. (2) This is the unfortunate story of sixteen-year-old Monique Murray, who was born, addicted to drugs, to a schizophrenic mother who abandoned Monique at birth. (3) Her childhood and teenage years were marked with unexplained fits of violence and rage until she was charged with felonious assault at age fifteen and placed in a juvenile detention center. (4) Once Monique was diagnosed with schizophrenia, she was then transferred to the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility where she was provided with a strict regimen of schooling, meals, therapy, and other supervised activities. (5) Monique's story is not an unfamiliar one. Every night, 2,000 children across the country are needlessly going to bed in juvenile detention centers because they do not have access to proper mental health care in their communities. (6) Thankfully, new trends in the justice system are helping to combat some of these issues.

   Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a new trend in the juvenile justice system emerged. This trend, known as the therapeutic justice system, was introduced as an alternative to the traditional, punishment-based justice systems that have dominated juvenile justice for many years. Therapeutic systems work on the notion that judges, attorneys, probation officers and other court personnel are to act like counselors in a team-like setting. (7) Therapeutic systems place an emphasis on problem-solving, rather than simply distributing punishment to the juvenile offenders that enter its system. (8)

   The purpose of this Note is to review two specific and newly emerging therapeutic courts: juvenile mental health courts and juvenile drug courts. It will explain how and why a mental health element should be implemented into the juvenile drug court system. Part II of this Note will give a historical and procedural overview of juvenile drug courts. These procedures will draw mainly from the newly formed Medina County Juvenile Drug Court, located in Medina, Ohio. (9) Part III will explain the origination and procedures currently employed by juvenile mental health courts, as they relate specifically to Santa Clara's Court for Individualized Treatment for Adolescents. Part IV will explain why juvenile drug courts should implement certain elements of mental health courts because of the significant co-occurrence of juvenile substance use and accompanying mental health problems that occur in a significant number of juveniles. (10) Studies have shown, and court personnel agree, that up to 70% of juveniles with substance abuse or alcohol problems have at least one mental health issue that needs to be addressed. (11)

   Part V of this Note will examine the proposed integration of a mental health element into the juvenile drug courts in light of several pieces of recent and pending legislation, with a special view towards the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004, which supports mental health treatment for criminal offenders in place of traditional incarceration. (12) Finally, Part VI will explain how and why the juvenile drug court system should integrate a mental health element into its current procedures. Like any system in its infancy, the juvenile therapeutic justice system faces many challenges and issues as it attempts to gain more widespread acceptance. This Note strives to help the legal community embrace the therapeutic alternative as a means to improve the lives of juvenile substance abuse offenders with co-occurring mental health problems, while also increasing public safety in communities throughout the United States.

2. BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURES OF THERAPEUTIC COURTS

   1. Therapeutic Justice System Background

      Therapeutic justice systems, often referred to as "problem-solving courts," were developed almost fifteen years ago in response to society's decreasing confidence in the justice system due to the continued rise in crime rates, especially among repeat offenders. (13) Problem-solving courts are not simply neutral arbitrators that determine winners and losers, as traditional courts have done in the past. Rather, therapeutic courts and its personnel work as a team, emphasizing the treatment of a juvenile offender rather than strictly focusing on punishment of the juvenile offender. (14) In therapeutic courts, participants are seen as clients instead of as defendants, with graduation ceremonies and program completion certificates replacing sentencing and incarceration hearings. (15)

      Experts believe that the therapeutic justice is truly innovative because it represents the justice system's use of social science to promote the psychological and physical well-being of it participants, while also keeping safe the communities that they serve. (16) Due to the initial success of the first therapeutic drug courts, many communities have begun to adopt additional problem-solving courts to deal with problems such as DWI, parental drug dependency treatment, drug reentry programs, campus drug offenses, and domestic violence. (17) Even though these courts seem facially different, they all share the common factor: attempting to address the underlying social or psychological problems that face an offender instead of solely acting as a distributor of punishment. (18)

      Problem-solving courts are relatively new, but they can no longer be considered a novelty in the justice system. The American Bar Association, judges across the nation, court personnel, and the federal government are all endorsing problem-solving courts as a key component in the future of the American justice system. (19) Judge Jonathon Lohn, of the newly formed Medina County Juvenile Drug Court, likened the emergence of problem-solving courts to that of the Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MADD) movement in the 1980s, which called attention to the serious problem of drinking and driving in this country. (20) Judge Lohn remarked, "judges new and old must embrace therapeutic ideals because they are going to become more and more prevalent in the future." (21) The following is an overview of two specific problem-solving courts currently in place today: the juvenile mental health courts and the juvenile drug courts.

   2. Drug Court History

      The first drug court was established in 1989 in Dade County, Florida. (22) The drug court concept was developed in Florida in response to a federal ultimatum that Florida act to reduce the number of its incarcerated inmates or face losing valuable federal funding. (23) As a result, Supreme Court of Florida member Herbert Klein was directed to research the emerging problem of inmate over population. (24) Through his research, Klein discovered that a majority of inmates were incarcerated because of drug offenses. (25) He further discovered that many of these inmates continued to recycle back into the criminal justice system because of their drug addiction problems. (26) He then decided that, in order to break this pattern of criminal recycling, additional drug treatment services must be coupled with traditional criminal justice procedures. (27) With the help of then-district attorney Janet Reno, Klein implemented the first drug court. (28) Since the inception of the drug court in 1989, almost 1,700 new problem-solving courts have emerged in the United States as of December 2003. (29)

   3. Today's Juvenile Drug Court

      The National Criminal Justice Reference Service defines a juvenile drug court as "a special court given the responsibility to handle cases involving drug addicted offenders through extensive supervision and treatment programs." (30) More specifically, juvenile drug courts represent a coordinated effort among judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers, law enforcement officers, the mental health and social service community, and members of the local community. (31) In order for the juvenile drug court system to operate properly, these groups must actively and forcefully work to intervene and to break the cycle of abuse, addiction, and crime that plague many of today's juvenile offenders. (32)

      While not every one is the same, juvenile drug courts across the United States share several key components that...