Enhancing Juvenile Drug Court Outcomes With Evidence-Based Practices

Juvenile drug courts were developed in response to a perceived need to intervene more
effectively with youth with substance abuse problems. Close collaboration between the court
and substance abuse treatment provider is a defining component of the drug court model and
is critical to helping youth achieve positive outcomes. Despite the proliferation of
juvenile drug courts in recent years, however, evaluation of their capacity to reduce
offender substance use and criminal activity has lagged. Moreover, the Institute of Medicine
(IOM, 1998) and leading experts (McLellan, Carise, & Kleber, 2003) have presented a bleak
picture of the nation's capacity to meet the treatment needs of substance abusing
individuals. Although community-based programs provide the backbone of substance abuse
treatment in the nation, their capabilities have not kept up with major scientific advances
in the development and validation of evidence-based substance abuse interventions.

Building on our research findings and experience regarding juvenile drug court outcomes as
well as the transport of evidence-based practices to community treatment settings, the
purpose of this study is to develop and test a relatively flexible and low cost strategy for
enhancing the outcomes of juvenile drug courts by integrating components of evidence-based
treatments into existing substance abuse services.

Specifically, this project aims to:

Aim 1: Adapt existing intervention and training protocols from evidence-based practices
(i.e., Contingency Management for adolescent substance abuse; family engagement strategies
from evidence-based treatments of juvenile offenders) for integration into juvenile drug
court sites.

Aim 2: Conduct a study to examine youth (e.g., substance use and criminal behavior) and
system level (e.g., intervention adherence, feasibility, retention and completion rates,
consumer satisfaction, cost estimates) effects of implementing the intervention protocols in
juvenile drug courts.

Aim 3: Revise the intervention and training protocols in preparation for a Stage II study
if findings are supportive.