Youth Case Management

Youth case management is often the primary task of juvenile justice practitioners. Depending on where a youth is within the juvenile justice process, intervention strategies employed may differ:

• For preadjudicated youth in detention centers, intervention may focus on using information to develop an effective case plan to help the youth stop the behavior.

• For adjudicated youth on probation, the same intervention tasks are appropriate, but drug testing may also be introduced as a supervisory tool to monitor compliance with probation conditions. Noncomplying youth may receive graduated sanctions with treatment interventions to help them control their behavior. Drug test results of pre- or postadjudicated youth are not generally used to bring new drug-related charges against them.

Identifying substance-abusing youth in the juvenile justice system is an important first step for intervening in both their substance abuse and their delinquent behavior. Drug testing can help youth overcome denial of their behavior, and as a form of intervention can often help them achieve and maintain recovery and curtail other delinquent behaviors. Over time, effective drug identification will help juvenile justice agencies achieve a balanced approach to the problem, including community protection, youth accountability, and development of skills and other competencies among youth that will help them depart the juvenile justice system as more capable and productive members of society (Bazemore and Umbreit, 1994).

Although drug testing poses an additional expense for juvenile justice agencies and yet another task for personnel to perform, it can often save money by helping staff manage cases more appropriately and by preventing further substance abuse and delinquency that often result in youth recidivism. However, the most important reason for implementing drug identification procedures is their ultimate benefit for individual youth, their families, and communities. When lives can be reclaimed from patterns of substance abuse and delinquency, the personal and social advantages are immense.

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