...Drug Courts: Adult and Juvenile Rehabilitation Programs Eugene Berry Crj2200 Introduction to Criminal Courts Drug courts handle nonviolent substance abuse offenders, drug courts are used primarily to solve a problem rather than to send someone to jail or lock an offender away with less chance of rehabilitation. In the United States there are currently almost 2500 drug courts in the 50 states as well as the U.S. territories of Guam, and Puerto Ricco. Drug courts got their start in Florida, in 1989 judge Gerald Wetherington, Judge Herbert Klein, and state attorneys designed the court for non-violent offenders in Miami-Dade County, to battle a rising crack-cocaine problem in there city’s. Drug courts are a program the can involve different levels of intensive supervision by the courts themselves, this includes drug testing and substance abuse clinics or treatment programs. Drug court judges gain a lot of discretion and leeway in this system and can give the offenders instant or gradual sanctions if the offenders fail to meet the standards of the program given. To help keep the offenders compliant the courts can offer fewer drug tests, fewer court dates, and even the possibility of reduced or completely dismissed sentences if they programs are fully completed. Drug courts are proven to keep offenders from repeating their offences and the overall reduction in recidivism rates on these charges. There is research being done today that shows this treatment method could reduce drug...
Words: 1367 - Pages: 6
...concerned with juvenile diversion programs in the State of Texas and whether they work in reducing recidivism rates among offenders of both minor crimes as well as serious crimes. The study looked at four different treatment programs and the services provided by each. All juveniles were referred to the diversion programs following a preliminary hearing within the court system. This project ran from January 2017 until December 2017, during which time 562 youth were referred. The recidivism rates for each program type were calculated 24 weeks post diversion program through self-administered surveys as well as a review of court cases and a statewide warrant check. I. Introduction The juvenile justice system was created...
Words: 1661 - Pages: 7
...Many people stress the importance of reforming the juvenile justice system to increase its effectiveness and avoid discrimination. People argue about early intervention in juvenile delinquency, and advocates for the development of programs that are more centered on rehabilitation rather than punishment. In my opinion, rehabilitation is a slap on the wrist for minors, and they need to reap the consequences. Because learning the hard way sends a message to minors that what they’re doing is wrong and not acceptable. In my life, I’ve never had any major offenses but I have grown up around people that have. I believe that the way youre brought up has a huge roll in whether you take the right or wrong path. Much of the criticism about the American juvenile justice system revolves around its effectiveness in rehabilitating juvenile delinquents Research on juvenile incarceration and prosecution indicates that criminal activity is influenced by positive and negative life transitions regarding the completion of education, entering the workforce, and marrying and beginning families. ]According to certain developmental theories, adolescents who are involved in the court system are more likely to experience disruption in their life transitions, leading them to engage in delinquent behavior as adults. Although a lot of adolescents made mistakes In their path like anyone, their mistakes being more serious are often times discriminated in the eyes of their fellow peers, teachers, and in the eyes...
Words: 302 - Pages: 2
...community based corrections Correctional programming today is at a level of effectiveness that exceeds previous expectations. Jurisdictions throughout the United States there are other programs that utilize research-based programs to educate, train and motivate offenders. Gone are the days of haphazard implementation of programs that sounded good, but often just occupied time for the offenders. The past evolution occurred for many reasons (Corrections Today, 2010). One of our biggest wake-up calls was the claim made about 30 years ago that, nothing works in corrections, in terms of rehabilitation. Although this widely publicized statement was removed from its context for some less-than-honorable purposes, it did in fact bring some attention to the conundrum that many prisons were not effective as change agents for offenders, but rather seemed only to serve the purpose of separating problems from society (Corrections Today, 2010). 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009 (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010). While this singular purpose was acceptable to many citizens, the more visionary leaders, both inside and outside of corrections, understood that the only good thing that could ever result from the perpetuation of criminal behaviors was job security for those of us in the criminal justice field. Early efforts to increase the effectiveness of programs were creative, not always successful. However, the fact that...
Words: 1314 - Pages: 6
...Executive Summary The American court system is overflowed with people that suffer from substance abuse. For example drug and/or alcohol related crimes have been implicated in violent crimes, instances of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect cases. Therefore, drug court has come in to offer people arrested for substances abuse related crimes and opportunity to receive community-based treatment with judicial supervision to avoid potential incarceration. For this reason drug court has changed people’s lives in a variety of ways, which are often overlooked, are the positive impact on families and society. Overall, substance abuse offenders have a recurring problem for the criminal justice system as a result drug courts are an important strategy to reduce incarceration, provide drug treatment and reduce recidivism among nonviolent offenders. Another key point is research study by the National Institute of Justice in 2009 called the Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation confirmed that Drug Courts reduced crime and substance abuse, improved family relationships, and also increasing employment and school enrollment. (Marlowe, 2010) Another key point is drug courts have affected the offender’s criminal behavior and substance use with mandated drug and alcohol treatment. Henceforth drug courts has been a popular diversion program for drug offenders since it’s began in Dade County Florida in 1989. Overview Drug courts represent the criminal justice approach to ensure public...
Words: 1915 - Pages: 8
...Juvenile Diversion vs. Probation Juvenile diversion and probation are methods to rehabilitate offenders. There are several differences between diversion and probation. The difference between juvenile diversion and probation is juvenile diversion seeks to avoid the burdensome consequences of formal processing (Clear, Cole, & Reisig, 2013, pg. 447). Probation is when the offender is convicted of an offense, but rather than being incarcerated, the offender is released and subject to supervision. Diversion can be in two forms which is stopping the process of the case or through specific programs. Diversion programs are private and confidential meetings that are not conducted in public. A diversion program allows the offender to go through treatment and other conditions to avoid conviction while still holding the offender accountable for their actions. Diversion programs are usually for first-time offenders who do not need to be rehabilitated by incarceration or strict supervision and can be expunged after completion. Probation is being monitored and reporting/checking-in. Probation is usually for offenders who need to be rehabilitated by strict supervision but do not need to be incarcerated. Probation includes additional programming with conviction ordered by a judge that includes halfway house programs and other transitional programs. In other words, diversion programs avoid imprisonment and conviction while probation is the punishment for a conviction of an offense and can be...
Words: 537 - Pages: 3
...Alternative Solutions to Juvenile Sex Offender Registration and Incarceration Introduction Whenever sex offenders are referenced in the news, they are portrayed as horrible monsters. People who hurt others despite knowing better. There is, however, another face to the perpetrators of sexual offenses. This face belongs to the juveniles who make up roughly one-third of the reported sexual offenses against minors (“VII. Sex Offender Laws,” n.d.). These offenders are usually between the ages of eighteen and twelve. Twenty-three percent of the offending juveniles were under the age of the eighteen and roughly 3.7 percent of the juveniles were under the age of twelve. The age at which these crimes seem to peak is fourteen (“VII. Sex Offender Laws,” n.d.). Many of these children don’t know any better. The juvenile sex offenders are often victims themselves. Many were victims of maltreatment, or exposed to pornography, drug addiction, alcoholism, or poor role models. A sad fact is that almost 80 percent of these offenders have, themselves, been sexually abused and they don’t know any better than to do unto others what was done to them. Throughout this paper, the different degrees of sexual assault and sexual offenses will be covered along with the different punishments that accompany them. I...
Words: 1315 - Pages: 6
...Annotated Bibliography: What the Literature Says About Juvenile Sex Offenders The following articles, factsheets, and studies have been compiled to assist attorneys and individuals working on behalf of youth charged with sexual offending. The information contained in these resources aim to help others realize the fundamental differences between adult sex offenders and juvenile sex offenders, which include positive responses of juveniles to treatment, low recidivism rates of juveniles and negative impact of registries on youth development. It is our hope that this information will be used to improve legal outcomes for juvenile sex offenders, and uphold the purpose of the juvenile justice system as a rehabilitative, not punitive, system. PUBLICATIONS BY TOPIC Recidivism Rates/Amenability to Treatment Judith V. Becker, What We Know About the Characteristics and Treatment of Adolescents Who have Committed Sexual Offenses, 3 CHILD MALTREATMENT 317, (1998). The author states that comprehensive data does not exist to support the notion that if adolescents commit one sexual offense, they will go on to develop a pattern of sexual-offending behaviors or develop a psychosocial disorder. Michael F. Caldwell et al., An Examination of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act as Applied to Juveniles: Evaluating the Ability to Predict Sexual Recidivism, 14 PSYCHOLOGY, PUBLIC POLICY AND LAW 89, (2008). This study compared 91 juvenile males who had been treated in a secure correctional...
Words: 4199 - Pages: 17
...FFLIC’s mission is to transform the oppressive juvenile justice system in Louisiana into one that provides a nurturing and rehabilitative environment. While interning with FFLIC, I met with the community organizer on a regular basis who has a child currently imprisoned. I listened to his personal experiences with Louisiana’s juvenile justice system and learned about the need for therapeutic environments, interactions, and opportunities for underrepresented prison populations. In order to help FFLIC advocate for policy change at a state level, my colleagues and I authored a white paper that outlined recommendations to reduce recidivism rates for juvenile offenders in Louisiana, such as offering more educational and vocational programs in prisons and implementing community-based alternatives to incarceration. Through my research, I discovered that community-based alternatives that embody therapeutic philosophies, through emphasizing skills training, counseling, and behavioral programs, can be more successful at reducing recidivism than incarceration. This experience prompted my desire to continue research on recidivism reduction in graduate school and learn more about the impact clinical psychology practices can have on reforming the criminal justice...
Words: 1115 - Pages: 5
...Restorative Justice and Juvenile Courts Denise Gladden CRJS-450-1402A-01: Advanced Topics in Corrections April 12, 2014 Abstract This paper provides a brief overview of two different juvenile programs, aftercare and institutions. It provides contrasting differences between the treatment received by juveniles in housed institutions and community aftercare programs, and there effects on recidivism. The effectiveness or ineffectiveness of both programs, in treating and rehabilitating juvenile delinquents is also discussed. Restorative Justice and Juvenile Courts Restorative justice refers to repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behavior. This is best accomplished through a cooperative process which includes all stakeholders (Restorative Justice, n.d.). The Intensive Aftercare Program is an intensive community-based research, and seeks to reduce recidivism among high-risk parolees by better preparing them for release back into the community. This program model is data driven research that show that a highly structured and enhanced transition from incarceration to the community can be beneficial to the parolees in areas of family and peer relations, education, jobs, substance abuse, mental health and recidivism without having a negative impact on the community. A valuable component of the Colorado’s Intensive Aftercare Program is the requirement that both surveillance and treatment services be provided. It has been determined to be relevant to success...
Words: 1382 - Pages: 6
...Introduction The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) is the principal federal program through which the federal government sets standards for juvenile justice systems at the state and local levels. It provides direct funding for states, research, training, and technical assistance, and evaluation. The JJDPA was originally enacted in 1974 and even though the JJDPA has been revised several times over the past 30 years, its basic composition has remained the same. Since the act was passed in 1974, the JJDPA focused solitary on preventing juvenile delinquency and on rehabilitating juvenile offenders. Since the original enactment of the JJDPA in 1974, the periodic reauthorizations have been controversial, as the Act's opponents have sought to weaken its protections for youth, reduce prevention resources, and encourage the transfer of youth to the adult criminal justice system. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act follow a series of federal protections, known as the "core protections," on the care and treatment of youth in the justice system. The four "core protections" of the act are, the Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO), Sight and Sound separation, Jail Removal, and Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC). The "DSO" and "Sight and Sound" protections were part of the original law in 1974. The "Jail Removal" provision was added in 1980 in response to finding youth incarcerated in adult facilities resulted in "a high suicide...
Words: 6750 - Pages: 27
...| | |College of Criminal Justice and Security | | |CJA/374 Version 3 | | |Juvenile Justice Systems and Processes | Copyright © 2011, 2010, 2009 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course is a general orientation to the field of juvenile justice, including causation theories and the development of system responses to delinquent behavior. The problems facing juveniles today are addressed, and adult and juvenile justice systems are compared, including initial apprehension, referral, and preventive techniques. Specific issues examined include chemical dependency, mental illness, and compulsive and habitual offenders. Special attention is given to the problems inherent in the police handling of juveniles and the function of juvenile courts. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject...
Words: 2517 - Pages: 11
...| | |College of Criminal Justice and Security | | |CJA/374 Version 3 | | |Juvenile Justice Systems and Processes | Copyright © 2011, 2010, 2009 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course is a general orientation to the field of juvenile justice, including causation theories and the development of system responses to delinquent behavior. The problems facing juveniles today are addressed, and adult and juvenile justice systems are compared, including initial apprehension, referral, and preventive techniques. Specific issues examined include chemical dependency, mental illness, and compulsive and habitual offenders. Special attention is given to the problems inherent in the police handling of juveniles and the function of juvenile courts. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject...
Words: 2307 - Pages: 10
...What Works with Juvenile Offenders Juvenile Offenders are categorized differently than their adult counterparts for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is that as an offender who is not yet an adult, they are still considered a protected class due to their age and the concern of disrupting their rights to council and the rights of their parents to help dictate the events in their lives. Over the past few decades there have been several studies completed correlating the quantitative analysis in primary research studies with success rates of juvenile offender treatment. Because of the repeated success of certain treatments over others, these studies have lead to an agreement on what programs and intervention strategies work and which have little to no repeated success. By analyzing these treatment strategies as they have been portrayed in academic literature and through the primary research that has been completed, a summary analysis of what plans work when dealing with juvenile offenders will be devised and put forth as the best option for treatment. The first aspect to analyze when dealing with implementing a new strategy for juvenile offender reformation and treatment plans is the idea of quality of the plan versus quantity of sessions required with all individuals in correctional institutions across the United States. In the past two decades, the numbers of individuals within the correctional systems across the United States has skyrocketed. In 2004, the jump in population...
Words: 3477 - Pages: 14
...The Alternative Sentencing Policies and Solutions This comprehensive analysis describes the different possible alternative solutions for women, and juvenile offenders. The Bureau of Justice Grant programs developed incentives for other programs to decrease the overcrowded conditions for most state and federal prisons. These grant programs provided the information and incentives for state governments to expand, build, and adapt closed military bases as extension of the federal penal prison system. This initiative encouraged local and state courts to implement truth-in-sentencing and alternative sentencing concepts to lessen the burden of overcrowded prison systems. The grants divided in half for building prisons to increase the bed space for violent offenders, and the other half for alternative solutions to incarceration. The incentive funds used for more alternative solutions; prison islands, or barges, or closed military bases. Sentencing Drug Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported four to one ratio of prisoners showed under the influence of drugs, or alcohol while committing the current crime, or at the time of the violation (Langan, P, & Levin, D, 2002). The BJS showed detailed statistics report of 400; 000 people arrested for drugs, or drug-related offenses; 70% sent to state prisons, 40% drug-related offenses, 32% alcohol-related offenses, and 20% other violent crimes. The survey researched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) along with the (BJS) report...
Words: 2571 - Pages: 11