Translation of National Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Guidelines into Statewide Standards and Practices: a Case Study

Abstract

Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts (JDTCs) are designed to reduce offending and substance use among youth populations. This case study represents Louisiana’s translation of federal guidelines into best practices to address substance abuse and delinquency among youth served by the state’s JDTCs. Preliminary results from this implementation indicate positive outcomes for juvenile populations in JDTCs, including improvement in the rate of incentives to sanctions, increase in community service as a sanction, decrease in juvenile detention, and decreased length of time from start to successful program completion. As one of the first states to generate statewide standards from national guidelines, this model offers a framework for replication.