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Contact Information

Phone: (919)733-4564
Fax: (919)733-4625

Anne Mayher
(Community Development)

Priority B

Targeted intervention services for court-involved youth

Research:

• Twenty-one percent (21%) of North Carolina juveniles adjudicated for violent offenses classified as A-E felonies in 1999 recidivated within 3 years (NC DJJDP, Recidivism Report, 2002).

• NC detention rates have increased 30% (to 6,395) from FY 1998 to 2000.

• Admissions to NC Youth Development Centers have decreased 52% from 1996 to 2001 (NC DJJDP 2001 Annual Report).

• Seven hundred and thirty-one youth (731) were committed to NC Youth Development Centers in FY 2000-2001. Over two-thirds of the youth committed serious (F-1 felonies or A1 misdemeanors) offenses. Youth committing violent offenses and minor offenses constituted 17% and 14%, respectively, of the remaining population (NC DJJDP, Statistical Bulletin, 2002).

• Nationally, 50%-70% of offenders disposed to training schools are arrested within 1-2 years of release (Mendel, 2000).

• For the 1999-2000 school year, 7,466 NC students committed long-term suspendable acts. Seventy percent (70%) of those students were placed in Alternative Learning Programs (ALP). From 1997-2000, expulsions nearly doubled. Of the expelled students, 75% were placed in ALPs (NC State Board of Education, 2001).

• As many as 60% of court-involved youth may have mental health disorders (Kamradt, 2000).

Program Examples:

1. Structured day programs (NC Criminal Justice Analysis Center, NC’s Alternative Learning Programs)

• Non-residential program for court-involved youth

• Youth are closely supervised

• Program is highly structured and hold youth accountable

• Program elements include academics, experiential learning, individual and group counseling, anger/conflict management, life skills and recreation

2. After school programs (Whitaker, 1998)

• For key elements, see priority A, number 3.

3. Multisystemic Therapy (MST) (Henggeler, Mihalic, Rone, Thomas, & Timmons-Mitchell, 1998)

• Therapists address the multiple familial and community factors contributing to delinquent behavior

• Intensive therapy

• Home-based

• Empowers parents with the skills and resources to combat their child’s delinquency

• Focuses on removing social networks that contribute to problem behavior and increasing pro-social peer relationships, adult relationships and recreational activities

4. Functional Family Therapy (Alexander et al, 1998)

• Short-term, intensive home-based therapy

• Targets at-risk or delinquent youth between the ages of 11 and 18 and their families

• Change modifiable risk factors

• Encourage youth and their families to participate in change process

• Clearly identified steps or phases to accomplish change

• Accomplishments are reinforced as family progresses through phases

• Culturally sensitive

• Closely monitor progress

5. Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (Chamberlain & Mihalic, 1998)

• Targets chronic offenders at risk of incarceration

• Places offenders with well-trained families for 6-9 months

• Foster families emphasize behavior management, positive reinforcement, clear limits and separation from delinquent peers

• Foster families intensely supervise youth and act as mentor

• Juvenile’s family receives therapy and is taught to use structured system at foster home

• Case manager closely monitors offender, family and foster care providers and interacts with other concerned adults

6. Wrap-around programs (Kamradt, 2000)

• Intervention programs are designed to fit the needs of the delinquent youth

• Child-centered, flexible, and integrated services

• Involve youth’s family

• Focus on strengths of youth and his/her family

• Programs conduct needs assessment to develop individual treatment plan

• Case managers closely monitor youth’s progress

• Low case loads

• Creation of crisis management team

7. Balanced and Restorative Justice Programs (Bazemore & Umbreit, 1994)

• Involves youthful offender, offender’s family, victim and community

• Based on consideration of harm inflicted by youth’s actions

• All parties involved negotiate strategy for holding youth accountable

• Strategy includes developing youth’s capability to reenter productive society

• Youth are closely supervised