Logic Model Of Juvenile Drug Court

Using juvenile drug court as an alternative to incarceration to decrease the rapidly increasing number of young offenders is a policy that includes various key concepts that one must understand. To start, juvenile drug courts are mostly voluntary. While some juvenile drug courts are mandated, this aspect has not motivated a vast majority of these courts to follow suit. Therefore, these programs are designed to keep youth from using any type of substance. These juveniles are obviously involved in this type of program due to their substance use/abuse issues. The juveniles that are involved in this type of alternate program are comprised of both males and females. It has been shown that female juveniles have improved success at this type of program,

This model provides insight for a myriad of aspects within a juvenile drug court. The activities that are involved in this model are, the goals; short-term and long-term, influences, concerns, etc. and are all taken into account. While not every juvenile drug court comprises these exact factors, most have some sort of close variation in their program framework. To comprehend these ideals, Figure 2. Juvenile Drug Court Logic Model Diagram, shows important key concepts and topics that need to be addressed. Furthermore, the creation of an actual model for juvenile drug courts served as a dynamic development that aided this type of rehabilitative ideal to be superior compared to incarceration. When adapting to a model such as Figure 2, it allows the juvenile court to produce stimulating discussion on how to even further improve the model to maintain a higher success levels for the juvenile, and an overall satisfaction from the criminal justice system that this is a viable option for these young offenders. A tremendous aspect of the framework of these types of models is that the time-frame for the program is roughly a year. While this may seem like a significant period of time for the juvenile, this is considered optimal to not only correct the issues relating to substance abuse, but also issues that are possibly related to the home life of the juvenile. These

Most often, when these youth are identified, it either comes in the form of a referral from some sort of level of law enforcement or through another type of juvenile court, for example, a family violence juvenile court. With this type of full blown identification system in place, the juvenile is on a more expedited track to treatment and assistance. Therefore, the time when the juvenile is taken into custody for their infraction and the time the case is disposed is most often quick, so that the screening tools that are implemented into determining if someone is a candidate for juvenile drug court can be used properly, and the juvenile can be enrolled in the program as quickly as possible. The swift enrollment of these youth is essential so that they can have access to resources such as therapy, group activities, drug screening, etc. to set them on the right path for a successful completion of juvenile drug court, which might not be the case if they were incarcerated (Buel, 2003; Cooper,