Juvenile and adult Drug Courts are modeled in Los Angeles, CA and Lucas County, OH.

Addicted to alcohol and drugs since the age of 12, the Los Angeles juvenile drug courts help a teenager find sobriety in this video. Thanks to the services and treatments provided through the drug court her life is back on track.

Drug courts are specialized court programs that target substance-abusing offenders who can benefit from specialized treatment services. Juvenile and adult drug courts provide a variety of programs and consistent supervision geared toward supporting and helping minors and adults to maintain a drug-free life. It requires collaboration across agencies to support the offender and prevent additional offenses. 

The  juvenile or adult commits to frequent court appearances, random drug testing, and group and family counseling. 

Our analysis of drug courts assumes either a 12 or 18 month program depending on the standard in drug courts in the state. We assume that only non-violent offenders will be eligible, but not that eligibility will be restricted to first-time offenders. We assume that participants who fail out of the program will not receive prison sentences that are longer than what they would have been able to obtain in a plea deal in lieu of the program. Finally, we assume that participants will generally be allowed to graduate in the length of time prescribed by the program.

As of 2011, there were roughly 460 juvenile drug courts in the United States.

Beyond our general intervention methods, we incorporated the following issues into our model:

Drug Courts have been implemented differently in many different counties across the United States. Programs vary by length, eligibility, whether or not a participant is failed out of the program for a single positive drug test, and the severity of penalties against participants who fail out of the program. Finally, programs have varied in recent years in the willingness of judges and prosecutors to allow participants to graduate and have the charges against them dropped, largely due to political pressures.

Our model assumes either a 12 or 18 month program depending on the standard in drug courts in the state. We assume that only non-violent juvenile or adult offenders will be eligible, but not that eligibility will be restricted to first-time offenders. We assume that participants who fail out of the program will not receive prison sentences that are longer than what they would have been able to obtain in a plea deal in lieu of the program. Finally, we assume that participants will generally be allowed to graduate in the length of time prescribed by the program.

To estimate the impact of a program or policy, we use systematic literature reviews to determine causal pathways and effect sizes. Well-researched interventions that have robust, high-quality evaluations allow us to model the impact of an intervention with greater certainty. However, sometimes interventions have limited evidence and not all of the outcomes that are likely to be associated with the intervention have been studied. In those cases, we can only model what is available in the evidence base. We urge future research to take the following gaps into consideration.  

Long-term recidivism: While the evidence clearly shows that drug courts can substantially reduce five-year recidivism rates, further studies are needed to assess participants' recidivism rates after more time has passed, such as ten or 20 years. 

Long-term substance abuse: More evidence is needed on the percentage of participants remaining substance-free or suffering only minor relapses after ten or 20 years have passed.