NCJ Number
223789
Date Published
2008
Length
152 pages
Annotation
This book explores a juvenile drug treatment court (JDC) in the Midwest.
Abstract
This book investigates how denial, surveillance, coercion, accountability, and definitions of success operate and interact in the JDC environment and become intertwined with institutional needs and authority structures. The themes of the book emerged during the author’s 5 years of field work evaluating drug treatment courts, talking with participants and staff, and reading the research literature. Chapter 1 gives an introduction of the book, and a discussion is presented within the context of three primary themes: denial and the nonadversarial court; coercing treatment compliance; and drug testing and surveillance. These topics represent distinct but interrelated components of the JDC, and drug courts generally. Chapter 2 describes the JDC and its population. Chapter 3 explores the meaning of denial for youth and program staff and how it operates in the JDC. Chapters 4 and 5 address the court’s use of punishment to ensure compliance with treatment requirements. Chapter 6 explores the growing reliance on drug testing in the drug court as well as the criminal justice system and wider society. Chapter 7 discusses staff and juveniles’ definitions of successful outcomes. Chapter 8 considers the potential net-widening effect of the growth of juvenile drug court and questions whether the current intensive approach is appropriate for nondependent marijuana smokers. The author makes suggestions for reforming the JDC, informed by harm reduction. These suggestions include client-driven treatment, focusing on the problems the youths identify themselves, and letting go of abstinence as a necessary outcome. The Appendix provides a description of the methods used to conduct the research, including descriptions of the study sample and the interviews and observations that provide data and upon which conclusions are drawn. Notes and bibliography