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18 - Innovative problem-solving court models for justice-involved youth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2009

By
Carol L. Kessler
Edited by
Carol L. Kessler  and
Louis James Kraus
Carol L. Kessler
Affiliation:
Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, New York-Presbyterian, The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, 622 West 168 Street Vanderbilt Clinic-Fourth Floor New York, NY 10032 USA
Carol L. Kessler
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
Louis James Kraus
Affiliation:
Rush University, Chicago
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Summary

The traditional adjudication process for youth has been wrought with such difficulties as overcrowded detention centers, delay in processing cases, and ineffective case dispositions. The US juvenile justice system, in response to the pressure of an increase in youth crime in the 1980s, resorted to increased detention and transfer to adult court. Punitive models threatened to overtake the heart of the juvenile justice system – a system predicated on the commitment to offer youth rehabilitation and integration into their communities.

Despite a trend toward punishment, committed teams of judges, lawyers, law enforcement officers, probation officers, community leaders, and mental health providers have fashioned creative alternatives to traditional adjudication. They aim to address such root causes of delinquent behavior as mental illness, substance abuse, academic failure, and family disintegration. The process of adjudication is transformed into a therapeutic, rehabilitative approach, wherein young people's needs are assessed and addressed. Youth at risk are seen as youth in need of support – a term that youth advocates coined for themselves at a recent meeting convened by the American Bar Association's Youth at Risk Initiative.

Problem-solving courts search for young people's strengths, and endeavor to support youth with needed educational, vocational, health, and mental health services. They seek to deliver services in a culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate manner, and they strive to link youth to effective aftercare.

These courts embody a model of restorative justice. Reparations are made by the youth to his/her community and by the community to their youth.

Keywords

drug courtsjustice-involved youthjuvenile justice systemmental health courtsyouth courtsproblem-solving courtsrestorative justice conferences
Type
Chapter
Information
The Mental Health Needs of Young Offenders
Forging Paths toward Reintegration and Rehabilitation
 , pp. 385 - 400
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

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