Addressing Systematic Barriers in West Virginia''s Juvenile Drug Courts

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) envisions a nation where our children are healthy, educated, and free from violence. If they come into contact with the juvenile justice system, the contact should be rare, fair, and beneficial to them. To meet this vision, this program will focus on increasing the effectiveness of juvenile drug courts by: (1) supporting programs or strategies that recognize and engage the family as a valued partner in all components of the program; (2) supporting local training programs or teams that educate practitioners and their families to meet the needs of the adolescent client and include adolescent brain development, integrated treatment, trauma-informed care, cultural competency, and strong judicial interaction; (3) supporting the development of local programs that will engage stakeholders and build or enhance partnerships among judges, representatives from behavioral health treatment programs, juvenile justice, social services, school and vocational training programs, law enforcement, probation, prosecution, defense, and community organizations; (4) supporting existing juvenile drug courts to monitor and evaluate current practices to develop strategies to create policies and procedures that will address and provide solutions to identified local barriers and (5) developing and implementing data management systems, including disaggregated data by race and ethnicity of participants.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals project will focus on two enhancement categories: training and program monitoring and evaluation. The proposed project will accomplish two goals: (1) provide training and education to West Virginia's Juvenile Drug Court practitioners that enable them to better meet the needs of the juveniles and families that they serve and (2) establish statewide performance measures and conduct a process evaluation and outcome evaluation of West Virginia's Juvenile Drug Courts. The results of the process and outcome study will be used to manage the program and make program adjustments. During the project period, team members and service providers will receive training in evidence based practices. These new practices will serve approximately 250 juveniles between the ages of 10-17 years old suspected of (or charged with) a non-violent misdemeanor offense, non-violent felony offense, or drug/alcohol-related status offense. Additionally, statewide performance measures will be developed, and a process and outcome evaluation will be conducted by the National Center for State Courts. CA/NCF