The purpose of this Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) is to spell out a strategy for diverting appropriate youth with alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse problems from further penetration into the juvenile justice system (JJS), by placing them in AOD abuse treatment. Members of the consensus panel responsible for developing this TIP designed a process for communities to use in building new linkages and partnerships among treatment programs, public health services, social services, and juvenile courts in order to plan juvenile AOD diversion programs.
Such partnerships are built by developing consensus regarding the extent of AOD abuse by adolescents in the community, the safety needs of the community, and the array of treatment options required to address the problem. The strategy proposed in this TIP requires each partner to assume responsibility for finding a solution to the problem of AOD-abusing juvenile offenders and for ensuring the overall success of the collaborative efforts of juvenile courts and AOD abuse treatment programs to divert youth away from or out of the justice system.
In recent years, two key factors, the increasingly high number of juveniles involved in crime and the decreasing availability of funding for programs, have reduced the ability of juvenile courts to impose immediate sanctions for juvenile crime. As a result, many JJSs struggle to develop program responses that can meet the complex needs of the youthful offender and the community's need for safety.
A contributing factor to the inability of many JJSs to reconcile often divergent needs is the considerable public concern over the last decade about the prevalence of and increase in violent juvenile crime. Opinion polls indicate that the public has grown less tolerant of many delinquent acts. The JJS was designed to protect and rehabilitate juvenile offenders. Since people in many communities have seen little evidence of successful rehabilitation, they have lost patience. They have thus begun to push for the imposition of adult penalties for juveniles who come before the courts.
Juvenile use of AODs presents a fundamental threat to the well-being of children and their families and is significantly associated with serious crime. AOD abuse indisputably is a pervasive and harmful influence; it must be taken into account by juvenile justice planners who seek to balance the needs of court-involved youth, their families, and the community.
Although juvenile courts historically have functioned within a network of community social service and treatment agencies, these networks' responsiveness to AOD-abusing youth has at best inconsistently met the needs of courts, youth, and families. Many AOD abuse treatment programs were developed to serve only those adolescents and families who seek help.
Youth who have severe behavioral or emotional problems may need AOD treatment configured differently from that which is readily available. These special needs, compounded by resistance to treatment, have placed many youth in the JJS beyond the scope of AOD abuse treatment providers.
For all these reasons, judges and staff in juvenile courts may have had little opportunity to see AOD treatment be successful. They also may not fully understand or have much patience with the relapses typical of addiction and the behavior associated with these relapses. Consequently, many judges and juvenile court services personnel seek to remove AOD-using or -abusing adolescents from the community by committing them to training schools, boot camps, or other residential facilities instead of to AOD abuse treatment.
The purpose of this TIP is to articulate a strategy for diverting youth with AOD abuse problems from an escalating involvement with the JJS. Members of the consensus panel responsible for developing this TIP formulated a new approach to designing and implementing a program for providing AOD treatment to youth who were appropriate candidates for diversion: the AOD abuse treatment system acts as a partner with the JJS and with community health and social services. This approach depends on the development of new linkages and partnerships among these four groups.
This approach contrasts with what often occurs in the justice system, in which plans for treatment are developed and then a treatment program is contacted to arrange for service delivery. The treatment program, in an effort to provide comprehensive services to justice system clients, often refers them to other treatment providers or to public health or social services agencies. Thus, the combined services that youth need often are linked haphazardly, if they are provided at all. The delivery of collaborative and comprehensive care depends to a large extent on the efforts of individual personnel in the treatment system to arrange for it. Juvenile justice personnel are less frequently involved in making formal referrals to public health or social service agencies.
In the model proposed by the consensus panel, treatment personnel and representatives of health and social service agencies in the community participate from the beginning and function as partners with the JJS in designing the program. In this model, these partners collaborate to develop consensus regarding the extent of AOD use by adolescents in the community, the safety needs of the community, and the array of treatment options required to address the problem.
The model proposed in this TIP requires the four partners to share responsibility for the overall success of the collaborative diversion efforts of juvenile courts and AOD abuse treatment programs. The collaborative model requires each partner -- the JJS, AOD abuse treatment programs, and community health and social services -- to assume responsibility for finding a solution to the problem presented by juvenile offenders who have substance use disorders.
Traditionally, diversion has been seen as a mechanism for removing appropriate youth from the juvenile court process before they are formally adjudicated or even, in some cases, petitioned. For the purpose of this TIP, however, a broad definition of diversion is used. Diversion, as used in this TIP, refers to an alternative to the further penetration of an individual youth into the JJS. Diversion from formal juvenile court processes may occur at any point within the JJS short of incarceration. For example, a youth may be diverted to AOD abuse treatment informally before adjudication takes place.
A youth may be diverted to AOD abuse treatment after formal disposition; for example, potential commitment to a training school may be held in abeyance until the youth successfully completes treatment. (An equally important need -- programs to divert youth from entering the JJS in the first place -- is also deserving of attention. However, these programs are not the subject of this TIP, which only considers programs for youth who are already involved with the JJS.) Diversion, as referred to in this TIP, is a strategy for increasing effective collaboration between the juvenile courts, the AOD abuse treatment field (including public health and social services), and community organizations. It empowers the treatment community with the authority of the juvenile court to require compliance and attendance, while providing the juvenile court with another intervention for juvenile offenders and youth at risk of an escalating involvement in the JJS.
This linkage and collaboration between AOD abuse treatment programs, the community, and the JJS addresses the following needs:
Individualized screening, assessment, and treatment for young offenders
The opportunity for youth to be accountable to themselves and the community
The opportunity for youth to acquire competence in social, vocational, coping, and communication skills and to receive educational services
The protection of the community.
This TIP provides "hands-on" information and instruction about the process of collaborating to establish a juvenile court diversion program for youthful offenders whose court involvement is associated with AOD abuse. Specifically, this TIP
Identifies the key issues and policy goals for combining AOD abuse treatment with juvenile justice diversion
Explores the practical and legal ramifications of this type of diversion
Provides a greater understanding from a number of perspectives of the opportunities and problems associated with diversion
Provides communities with a detailed "road map" for collaborative planning and implementation of such diversion programs.
The TIP should be useful to juvenile justice planners, community planners, human service practitioners, and others in addressing AOD abuse in court-involved youth in a multidisciplinary, collaborative manner. The approach to diversion described in this document will be useful in reducing stress on the JJS by encouraging the treatment of AOD-abusing youth earlier and more effectively.
The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) has developed a chart to help planners and others gain an overview of points in the JJS continuum at which collaboration and integration may be most effective. The CSAT Juvenile Justice Treatment Planning Chart is presented in Appendix C.
Chapter 2 presents an overview of a diversion program for AOD-abusing youth in the juvenile justice system. It introduces the concept of forming a collaborative group from sources within the community to design and implement the program.
In Chapter 3, the collaborative planning process is described, with emphases on the five major types of decisions that have to be made by the planning group. Four of these decisions pertain to the community and community organizations: 1) the JJS, 2) the AOD abuse treatment system, 3) community health and social services, and 4) the community itself.
The fifth type -- management decisions -- affects the other four and enables the collaborative planning group to bring the diversion program to life. The consensus panel recommends that members of the planning group join forces to address all these areas, with the group most directly affected leading the discussion as appropriate.
Chapter 4 describes the five areas of decisionmaking and presents a systems approach to collaborative planning, leading to a juvenile AOD abuse treatment diversion program.
Chapter 5 presents guidelines for use by the collaborative planning group in its implementation activities and for developing a procedural manual for implementation.
Several appendices follow, providing literature sources and documents that can be useful to planning groups.
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