justice problem solving

The traditional juvenile justice system

The traditional juvenile justice system used treatments, punishments, and rehabilitation programs to help adolescents or juveniles change harmful behaviors after they occurred. Nonetheless, once individuals engage in full-fledged criminal behavior, the system faces a slew of challenges. Various programs have been implemented as preventive measures to keep minors in schools or rehabilitation facilities and keep them from engaging in criminal activities as a result of addictions or other transgressions (Felitti, 2004). Programs like Trauma Informed Intervention (TII) and Positive Youth Development (PYD) are critical to reaching such objectives (Adams, 2010).

Juvenile delinquency and social difficulties

Juvenile delinquency is characterized by a variety of social difficulties. Drug addiction, violence, and truancy are examples of such issues (Adams, 2010). The problems influence the activities that minors engage in and as such, affect the social relations in a particular community. When the minors engage in the use of alcohol and other drugs, their behaviors adversely affect their communities and families. There is a correlation between substance abuse and delinquency that places a burden on the juvenile justice system. The problem of drug use drives the initiation of new programs in the juvenile judicial system to combat its consequences. Violence is another social problem causative to the institutionalization of the administration of juvenile justice. It entails disorderly conduct such as fighting in public places, mooning, cursing a teacher, flashing and indecent exposure among others. Truancy, on the other hand, entails a social problem where minors skip school without valid excuses as well as without the knowledge of their parents or guardians. Truancy accounts for a significant number of status offense cases in the juvenile system, and there is a correlation between truancy and future delinquency.

Strategies and the Model

The sequential intercept map is a model that provides an adequate framework for organizing as well as conceptualizing a range of community strategies or alternatives to standard prosecution. It entails five points of standard criminal justice process of arrests, convictions, and incarceration that can be intercepted resulting in a different procedure for an individual. The intercepts include law enforcement and emergency services, followed by post-arrests, post-initial hearings, re-entry from prisons/jails and community reactions and support. Source: www.samhsa.gov

AMHSA’s criminal justice model

AMHSA’s criminal justice model shown above entails an organized framework for intervention to the problems of the juvenile system. The model builds on collaboration between behavioral health systems and the criminal justice. The three problem-solving interventions for juvenile social problems include the application of early diversion programs, adult behavioral health treatment court collaborative and offender reentry program (ORP).

Early diversion programs

Early diversion programs entail those that focus on the role of law enforcement officers in the juvenile justice system in collaborating with community health providers. The programs help in carrying out monitoring of behaviors and carrying out arrests. The goal of the program is to help in diverting minors with substance problems and mental health disorders from the criminal justice system into community services (Cocozza & Shufelt, 2006). The program falls under intercept 1.

Collaborative program

On the other hand, the collaborative program entails collaborative efforts that make courts to be more flexible while dealing with multiple criminal justice systems as well as local community recovery providers. The goal of the program is to address the behavioral health needs of different individuals involved in the criminal justice system (Cocozza, Skowyra & Shufelt, 2010). It allows the individuals to receive treatments services hence change behavior. It falls under intercept 2.

Offender reentry program

The third program, offender reentry program entails those that help individuals going back to the communities. It falls under intercept 4 and aims at expanding and enhancing treatment services for such individuals.

References

Adams, E. J. (2010). Healing invisible wounds: Why investing in trauma-informed care for children makes sense (p. 1). Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute.

Cocozza, J. J., & Shufelt, J. L. (2006). Juvenile mental health courts: An emerging strategy. Delmar, NY: National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice.

Cocozza, J., Skowyra, K. R., & Shufelt, J. L. (2010). Addressing the mental health needs of youth in contact with the juvenile justice system in system of care communities: An overview and summary of key issues. Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health, Washington, DC.

Felitti, V. J. (2004). The origins of addiction: Evidence from the adverse childhood experiences study.