Travis County Juvenile Treatment Drug Court

The Grants to Expand Substance Abuse Treatment Capacity for Juvenile Drug Courts Program (here after referred to as the CSAT/OJJDP Juvenile Drug Court Program) supports programs to enhance and expand substance abuse treatment capacity for juvenile drug courts. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ) issued a joint solicitation for the FY 2009 CSAT/OJJDP Juvenile Drug Court Program. The purpose of the program is to enhance the capacity of existing juvenile drug courts to serve substance-abusing juvenile offenders through the integration and implementation of the Juvenile Drug Court: Strategies in Practice, the Reclaiming Futures program model, and best practices in treatment. CSAT will provide funding for the treatment component of the program and OJJDP will provide funding for the operation of the juvenile drug court component.

Travis County will enhance the capacity of the Travis County Juvenile Treatment Drug Court (JTDC) by serving substance abusing juvenile offenders through the Juvenile Justice Integrated Network (JJIN) with the Reclaiming Futures Program models. In response to the increasing number of youth engaging in substance abuse, Travis County Juvenile Probation Department developed and operates a Juvenile Justice Integrated Network. Youth referred to the Travis County Juvenile Probation Department are screened and assessed in the Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC). Of the 8,681 total referrals to TCJPD during the 2001 calendar year, nearly 4,200 were physical referrals. Seventy-one percent of these referrals use alcohol; sixty-nine percent use drugs and forty percent are chemically dependent. As a result, in May 2001 began implementation of the Juvenile Treatment Drug Court (JTDC) to enhance outcome in working with substance-abusing youth that have complicated issues and possible multigenerational family problems.

The target population is youth between the ages of 13.6 to 17 years and unique in that the youth linked to the JTDC will have been adjudicated and often eligible for long-term institutional placement at the Texas Youth Commission. The JTDC chooses a target population that is recidivist as related to their drug use. The award will also increase the availability of treatment services and support an expansion of the JTDC by ensuring that those participating will have access to the treatment services needed through the Travis County Juvenile Justice Integrated Network. The concepts of the Juvenile Justice Integrated Network (JJIN) support blending services such as mental health and substance abuse treatment. The major program goal is to increase the ability of Travis County to provide encumbered treatment services to youth served in the Juvenile Treatment Drug Court by utilizing the Reclaiming Futures model to guide and operate the coordination of the juvenile justice and alcohol treatment systems.
CA/NCF