NCJ Number
191079
Date Published
June 2001
Length
285 pages
Annotation
This is the final evaluation of the Denver Juvenile Justice Integrated Treatment Network.
Abstract
The Network sought to expand the identification, assessment, case management, and alcohol and other drugs (AOD) treatment services to include youth at all points of the juvenile justice system; expand services to include mental health, health, education, employment, and other services; develop a Center for High Risk Youth Studies; and develop a Management Information System between State and local agencies, and community providers. The Network used a cross system and cross sector collaborative strategic planning process to identify the gaps and barriers to comprehensive, integrated services for AOD-abusing juvenile offenders, and collaboratively developed 116 strategies to address those gaps and barriers. Network efforts had positive impacts at system, services, and client levels. Among its many accomplishments, the network increased and improved linkages between many points of the juvenile justice and treatment systems; it took numerous steps to improve the capacity and capabilities of the treatment system for the target population; and target population juveniles had consistently lower new criminal filing rates than juveniles who did not enter the Network process. However, the study claimed that the work of the Network was not complete. There were still justice and treatment system gaps and barriers that might be limiting the effectiveness of agencies seeking to work with the target population. Tables, figures, references, appendixes