Download Specialized Courts for Juvenile Offenders

Specialized Courts for
Juvenile Offenders
Class 23
Conceptual Framework
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Juvenile court was the original problem-solving court
Creation of specialized courts is convergence of three
trends
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Taking seriously the Right to Treatment
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logical extension of parens patriae doctrine (Nelson v Heyne, 491 F.2d 352 (1974))
Historical diversionary and interventionist underpinnings of the juvenile court
Broader trends and practices in adult courts to create specialized courts to
respond to social trends and problems
Other subtexts (e.g., reaction to determinacy in sentencing)
The promise of benefit – a therapeutic alternative – justifies
the relaxation of procedural safeguards
Separation of punishment from treatment, but use of
threatened punishment to coerce treatment
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Emergence of therapeutic jurisprudence in adult courts
Why Specialized Courts?
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Juvenile courts burdened
with drug cases beginning
in late 1980s
Lack of specialization to
respond by linking
juvenile defendants to
AOD or other therapeutic
services
Higher rates of recidivism
for drug- or alcoholinvolved offenders
Similar concerns about
guns, increase in juvenile
weapons arrests paralleled
rise in juvenile homicides
Juvenile Drug Arrests by Age, Sex
and Race, 1980-99
Drug Arrests of White and Black
Juveniles, 1994-2003
White Juveniles
Black Juveniles
Differences from General
Juvenile Courts
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Small caseloads
Frequent hearings
Immediate sanctions for violations of agreements
Family involvement
Elements of restorative justice (community participation in gun
courts)
Treatment services
Mutual accountability between juveniles in treatment and
treatment service providers
Stronger role for judge as therapist and manager
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“intensive judicial supervision”
Defense and prosecution are secondary parties to therapeutic
concerns
Exit Strategies
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What is success?
Obviously, reducing recidivism and drug use
 Systemic impacts – resource creation, mobilization,
and improvement
 Integration of services into web of accountability
within the court
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What is failure?
Reactions to positive drug tests
 Responding to re-arrest
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The Details
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Who is eligible and who is not?
Length of Contract? How many meetings? Content of meetings?
Proportionality?
What particular training should the judge have to take on these new
roles?
 Therapist
 Evaluator of services
Matrix of services, competence of providers
Coordination with schools and other services
Response to discovery of situational contexts that require intervention to
make specialized court successful
 Child abuse or neglect
 Parental drug or alcohol addiction
 Launch protective action by court?
Response to failure
Termination criteria
Diversion questions – stigma in subsequent proceedings
YOUR TASK
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Design a court
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Group A – Drug Court
Group B – Gun Court
Group C – Constitutional
Critics
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Elements:
Eligibility and exclusions
 Length of program
 Reporting requirements
 Frequency of meetings
 Selection of treatment
providers
 Therapeutic content(s)
 Reactions to failure
 Role of defense attorney
 Role of prosecutor
 Termination
 Privacy
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