State of the Field: Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts

Dr. Kristen DeVall:
Hello and welcome back to Justice to Healing. I'm Dr. Dr. Kristen DeVall, Co-Director of the National Drug Court Resource Center. And in the studio with me today is Dr. Dr. Christina Lanier, the other Co-Director of the NDCRC. 

Dr. Christina Lanier:
Hello everyone.

Dr. Kristen DeVall:
Continuing our seven part series highlighting specific types of treatment courts, today's episode is State of the Field: Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts. We are very excited to have Dr. Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer with us today. She is the Director of Juvenile Training and Technical Assistance at the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. Welcome Dr. van Wormer. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Thank you. Thanks for having me. 

Dr. Kristen DeVall:
Dr. van Wormer, can you talk briefly about how you became involved with juvenile drug treatment courts? 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Yes. So thank you for that question because it's I think a bit of a unique start in that I am sometimes what's referred to as a pracademic, which means that although I eventually landed in academia, I started my career as a practitioner. And so most of my early career was spent working in the juvenile justice system as a juvenile probation officer. But I also had the opportunity while at my juvenile court that I worked at to do a lot of grant writing for the department and was able to bring in various programs and projects into the organization. And that's when I had this opportunity, I had seen the juvenile drug treatment court model in action in Missoula, Montana. It was one of the earliest juvenile drug treatment courts. In the early 1990s, it was established. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so I had this opportunity to see it and brought a grant to our organization to establish a juvenile drug treatment court and then had the opportunity to work in it. Eventually, I worked in adult and family drug treatment courts as well. And over time became a faculty member for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals to be able to do training and technical assistance across the country with drug courts. And also, eventually moved into academia where I've done a lot of research on the drug treatment court model. I also do research on implementation challenges around evidence-based practices.

Dr. Christina Lanier:
Thank you, Jackie. Hearing about your transition from practitioner to researcher really highlights exactly what the National Drug Court Resource Center in this podcast are trying to do, really bridging that gap between practitioners and researchers. You mentioned one of the first juvenile drug treatment courts as you were talking, can you talk a little bit more about the history of these courts or this model and how it came to be?

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Absolutely. As you can possibly imagine, the juvenile drug treatment court model was developed from the adult drug court model, which as you know began in the late 1980s in a response to this continual entry of individuals into the criminal justice system that had underlying substance use disorders and this frustration among the founding court, that they continued to see the same people sort of cycling through the docket and nothing was being done to address the underlying needs of that population. And recognizing that incarceration was not the answer. And so once these adult drug courts began to proliferate across the country, juvenile courts naturally became interested in the model because juvenile courts have historically been, it's found, juvenile court systems are founded on the notion of rehabilitation and service support and provision. And so it was sort of a natural progression that juvenile drug treatment courts would emerge.

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so by the mid 1990s, we started to see these be developed across the country. And certainly by the early 2000s, there was quite a few juvenile drug courts up and operating to date. We've averaged anywhere between, we're at about 320 juvenile drug treatment courts currently. There was a high at one point of around 450 juvenile drug treatment courts. But when they first began, when juvenile drug treatment courts first emerged, they followed the adult drug court 10 key components, which the listeners might know were developed in 1997. And they were a document, sort of a blueprint and the courts were instructed or encouraged, I should say, encouraged to follow so that we wouldn't have what we've come to term drug court drift, which is basically drifting away from practice. We know that that's a problem in different criminal justice initiatives.

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so the early juvenile drug treatment courts followed the 10 key components, but it just, we knew at the time that there was more that needed to be reflected because the practices were really emerging quite different than what we would see in the adult drug court model. And so we came to develop, there was a consensus document that was built in 2003 called the 16 Strategies in Practice. And that was an effort between the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, NADCP, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. And then a team of experts from across the country came together to build these 16 Strategies, which kind of moved, took the 10 key components, but then thought beyond that because youth of course are different, they exist within a family structure, peers are very important, they exist within school systems. And so all of that was then reflected in the 16 Strategies. And so from that point forward, 2003 forward, juvenile drug treatment courts had a model to follow in the 16 Strategies.

Dr. Kristen DeVall:
That's great. And I think Jackie, what you've really highlighted is sort of the foundation of the model, but really thinking how are youth different than adults? We hear a lot about how our juvenile drug treatment courts, how has that as a model different from the juvenile justice system, which correctly categorized as more rehabilitative in nature. So can you talk a little bit about the differences between the traditional juvenile justice system and the juvenile drug court model? 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Absolutely. I think one of the things that's important to think about is that the juvenile justice system is probably the leading source of referrals into the substance use disorder treatment system. So most adolescents are going to be connected to substance use disorder treatment through the juvenile court system or maybe through the school system, you know that we don't see a lot of self-referral necessarily. And so while that exists in the juvenile court system, there is a heavy focus in the juvenile drug treatment court model on family engagement in the court system, in the proceedings, where families are not only just asked to attend court, because that's, of course, they're in some states required to attend court, of course, if a youth is involved in the juvenile justice system, believe it or not, not all states require parent participation or a parent to be present at a proceeding. But for the juvenile drug treatment court model, family attendance, family engagement, and then the family members, if they have needs working on their own needs as well is a heavy focus in the juvenile drug treatment court model. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Another area that there's a heavy focus on with the JDTC compared to the regular juvenile justice system is that in the regular juvenile justice system, there's a focus on compliance and probation and just making sure it's sort of a check mark system making sure that things are being completed and that the youth is following the court order. But on the juvenile drug treatment court side, of course, it all revolves around a fully developed case plan and an integrated case plan that exists between the courts, probation, the treatment providers, the substance use disorder treatment provider, the schools, and other providers that might be needed to address either mental health issues or maybe family therapy is needed, maybe the parents are in need some sort of parenting courses or parenting classes. So there's a heavy focus on this very collaborative environment across all these agencies and resources that's really focused on helping these youth build up their long-term recovery capital. And so that's a bit of a different approach than the standard juvenile justice system. 

Dr. Christina Lanier:
So one of the areas that we've seen emerging recently within the juvenile justice system generally is a focus or at least an emphasis on some of the research that's been emerging on brain development and youth and how that can affect their process through the juvenile justice system. Can you talk a little bit about some of that research and perhaps how it ties to the juvenile drug treatment courts? 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
I'm glad you mentioned or brought up the brain science that has been driving so much reform in the juvenile justice system over the last several decades. And if anyone listening to this podcast is involved in the juvenile justice system, you know that the science and research has found its way, not only into policy and practice, but even into statute and even into the US Supreme Court rulings around the death penalty for adolescents and around this question of a life sentence without parole for adolescents. So this information, these scientific findings that have included not just brain scan imagery, but also different types of psychological testing or scenario testing, that there's a lot of different researchers that have been involved in this kind of in this work, Dr. Jay Giedd, and Laurence Steinberg, Elizabeth Cauffman, there's so many that have contributed to this field of understanding adolescent brain development, but then not only that, but how do we take that and consider that in terms of our practices and our juvenile court system. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And I think all of you that are listening to this podcast, you either work with adolescents or if you've even had your own adolescents like your own teenagers, you'll know that there's these hallmark features, these hallmark characteristics of adolescent development. And in those teenage years, there's very common behaviors that we see in adolescents, they're more prone to risk taking, of course, they can be moody, they can be aggressive, they can be quiet, they can be in varying states of emotion. They have heightened emotional awareness in their brain can be with this emotional overreaction in certain situations. So there's these hallmark characteristics and features that maybe they don't necessarily, they sleep different hours than we think they should sleep. For example, their eating patterns change, their hygiene changes, all of that, but there's also changes in the brain that are happening in those early adolescent years, and then also in the, of course, teenage years. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so what we know is that the teen brain, youth primarily operate out of the amygdala. And the amygdala is that area that is responsible. It's more of the emotional center of the brain. There's emotional reactions that come from the amygdala, including fear and aggressive behavior. So they tend to operate out of that specific region of the brain rather than the prefrontal or what's called the frontal cortex of the brain. And that's the area that controls reasoning and helps us to think before we act. That's the part of the brain that develops later. And it doesn't develop in some individuals till 24, 25 years of age. So that's kind of like that CEO of the brain. And it's that part of my brain that tells me that at my age, I shouldn't do those things, these certain things, because I know it could have consequences. And so it sort of puts the brakes on the brain. But that's not fully developed. That part of the brain is still changing and maturing well into adulthood. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And there's other changes in the brain that are happening. There's also this rapid increase in the connections between the brain cells that's making the brain pathways more effective, there's nerve cells, and they're developing this sort of insulating layer that helps cells to communicate. And all of these changes over time, of course, help with thoughts and actions and behaviors. And that's why we see such different behavior in adolescents from adults.

 Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
So as I said at the beginning, when I first started talking about adolescent brain development, there are these characteristics that youth are more likely to, of course, act on impulse, they tend to misread or misinterpret social cues or emotions. And if you've worked with adolescents, or if you have a teenager of your own, you know that this is quite common, you can be just sitting there listening to them, explain a situation or share a story. And then they with just sort of a passive look on your face, but yet they interpreted as maybe that you're angry or that you're confused. So there's this misinterpretation of cues, they can tend to get in, they can be accident prone, because again, they're more prone to giving new things a try. It's a period of experimentation. They're more likely to engage in dangerous or risky behavior. We'd had that period of time in our lives as older adults to recognize through the frontal cortex, if I do that, if I do this certain situation, if I go bungee jumping, there's a possibility that something could go wrong for me. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
But youth are still, because of where they're at, again, primarily operating out of that amygdala, which is more of that emotional and reactive area of the brain being less led by that thoughtful logical frontal cortex, we tend to see these behaviors. And adolescents are also as we know less likely to think before they act, they are less likely to pause and maybe consider consequences of their actions. When you often will ask a youth, you'll say, "Well, what are your goals a year from now or five years from now?" And they'll say, "I don't know." Because of where they're at in their brain development, they don't have that ability necessarily at this point to engage in that super long-term thinking. That doesn't mean that they can't make good decisions or tell the difference between right and wrong because they can, they certainly can. And it also doesn't mean that they shouldn't be held responsible for actions. It's just that as individuals, as people that work with youth, we should be helping them to develop these skills that they need, these cognitive and social skills they need. Our work should be focused on that. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so by understanding these differences in the development where they're at in their various stages of development, we can do a better job of working with these youth and families. And you couple that, the brain research, which again, has really driven a lot of reform in the juvenile justice system over the last several decades. But you take that and then you couple it with there's new and emerging research about the impact of certain types of drugs on the developing adolescent brain. And I know from working with courts for such a long period of time that the primary drug of choice among youth in a juvenile drug treatment court is marijuana. And we don't have time in this podcast to discuss just the cultural reflection of the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana and the impact of that on youth perceptions of the substance.

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
But I will say that there's always this question about, well, is the adolescent brain impacted by certain types of drugs in terms of because it's in this developmental stage? And I'll say that at this point, the research is somewhat mixed on this question, because there's this question of is it the actual drug itself having an impact, a cognitive impact, because there have been studies that have shown the cognitive impact? And certainly in animal studies, like in studies where they study mice or rats, they see impacts, cognitive impacts in the brain in adolescent and emerging adulthood brains of rats. But when you're looking at the human studies, there's several really strong studies that are out there right now, like one that came out of New Zealand was over 1000 participants that they tracked and studied, but there's also this sort of question of other factors that might be impacting some of those results. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so right now, there is a study, it's called the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. And you might've heard of this or be tracking it as well, but it's a longitudinal study. And they're taking a large sample of young Americans from tracking them from late childhood all the way through early adulthood using neuroimaging to really trying to get an understanding of the impact of such drugs or such substances of marijuana and the impact of marijuana, for example, chronic marijuana use on the developing adolescent brain, and does it in fact have that impact on IQ, because that's what some of the studies have shown certainly in animal studies, but then even some limited studies on that have tracked humans over the development into early emerging adulthood have found some impact on IQ development and other cognitive impacts as well, schizophrenia or other types of mental health disorders and needs. So it's an interesting study. And I think it's going to be a really important study there. And they have numerous research questions that they're looking at, but I think it's going to have important impacts for the field. 

Dr. Kristen DeVall:
So I think all of that research around brain development and sort of what we know about the juvenile drug treatment court model and how those two things are unique. And then thinking back to the adult drug court model and who that model was designed for, can you talk a little bit about the target population for juvenile drug treatment courts? 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Yes. That's a great question because juvenile drug treatment courts are often held against that standard of adult drug courts, which is recidivism reduction. And adult drug courts have really had some very strong outcomes in their program. Of course, NADCP, has been able to build the National Best Practice Standards for Adult Drug Courts based on such a significant review of the literature. And there's been so much research done on adult drug court program. That's really one of the most studied criminal justice interventions to date at this point in our history. So there's so much great research. But they are held to the standard of studying and measuring success through recidivism reduction. And juvenile drug treatment courts really are set apart and they're quite different than the adult model. We already talked earlier about how there's, of course, they are heavily informed by adolescent brain development, the family, schools, community, community support, and community engagement, building up natural healthy supports for you. Those are all very different. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
The other thing that we see that's so different in juvenile drug treatment courts is that we don't see youth in these programs that are at that point like so many adults are where those adults will come before the court and they'll say, "I am sick and I need help. And I can't do this anymore. I can't have this lifestyle that I've led for the last 20 years. I've lost everything." Most of the youth, again, they haven't lost everything. They're not at that stage of having a severe substance use disorder. Now, occasionally, we do see that, but generally, what we see is youth with mild or moderate substance use disorder. But yet, they're high, moderate to high need or high risk. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
So the criteria for juvenile drug treatment court is a youth that on a risk need assessment tool is screened as moderate to high risk for recidivism and then moderate to high risk on their criminogenic needs, and then either a mild, moderate, or severe substance use disorder. And again, we just don't, that's how the model varies quite differently from the adult model, in that we don't see these youth that have developed because many of these youth are 14, 15, 16 years old, they're not standing in front of the judge at the age of 35 when they've used for 20 years. And so it is a unique intervention point. It's a point where we can really do a lot of important work with these youth. And so that's important criteria for that target population for juvenile drug treatment courts. 

Dr. Christina Lanier:
Yeah. Thank you. So you started to mention how we measure success in the juvenile drug treatment court. And that's one of the things that Kristen and I talk often is looking beyond the recidivism for this population. So can you talk a little bit about what measures of success should we use? This isn't an adult drug treatment court, these are juveniles. All of this important information that you've given us thus far has provided that fact. So how can we measure success or how should those that are evaluating the drug treatment courts for juveniles measure success? 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
So I mentioned earlier the 16 Strategies in Practice, and that was the guiding document that juvenile drug treatment courts had up until December of 2016. And in December of 2016, the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention released what are called the Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Guidelines. And those guidelines are based on an extensive review of the literature and research to tells us what works in juvenile drug treatment courts. The research I just mentioned that we have just, so we have volumes of research for adult drug courts, but we don't have near the volume that we do for juvenile drug treatment courts. And so many of the studies have had poor methods, small sample sizes, they only measure graduates in terms of recidivism reduction. And so the studies at this point are what we call inconclusive around juvenile drug treatment courts. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so OJJDP wanted to really make this investment in building these guidelines based on a careful review of the literature of what does work in juvenile drug treatment court or what works in juvenile justice. And they developed these set of guidelines. So there's seven main objectives. And then over 30 corresponding guidelines to those seven main objective. And I say all of this, because objective seven is specifically around monitoring and tracking program completion and termination. So this is how important data is. And that it gets its own objective. Imagine all the items that have to be covered in the Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Guidelines, team and teamwork and memorandums of understanding and evidence-based treatment and contingency management and the role of the judge, but data receives its own objective in terms of how you monitor and track program completion and termination. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so this guideline does speak to the importance of collecting, for example, general recidivism data like during the program or even after completion. And also, the drug use during the program. And if possible tracking drug use after the program ends. That often proved very difficult for programs because once these graduates or is terminated, of course, they moved maybe to a different system within the juvenile court or to a different program or they're just no longer even available. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Some of the other things we measure in juvenile drug treatment courts is program completion and termination. But we've been working very closely with juvenile drug treatment courts across the country to really move beyond these sort of factors and to move beyond this measure of success in the sense of it's just the absence of a new crime. It works flipping that conversation to instead say, look at all these other successes, which of course, create protective factors, which then allow these youth to eventually desist from crime. And it blends well with, of course, age crime theory, just thinking about that natural desistance from crime that can occur as these individuals enter into adulthood. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so what can we do with youth and what can we measure better? So education and educational enrollment, attainment, even if it's getting a GED, improved grades, improved class attendance, employment and connections to natural supports in the community, connections to pro-social activities, connection to, some communities, for example, especially in some urban areas have sober peer recovery networks for adolescents or for young adults. So connections to those. Even measuring family functioning and improvements and family functioning, those are all these protective factors that we should be looking at and measuring rather than just, like I mentioned, rather than just measuring this definition of success as the absence of a new arrest, it really should be what have we assisted the youth in adding to their lives and to building up these personal social and community and cultural capital areas of their lives. 

Dr. Christina Lanier:
Absolutely. And we have that, just to give a little story, we were working with a court and the coordinator for their juvenile drug treatment courts said that exact thing, I wish the county would stop asking about recidivism and look at all the other things that our kids are doing. And I thought, yeah, that's refreshing to know that that headed in that direction. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Yeah. Those are huge gains for these youth. And as I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, I worked in the juvenile justice system for many years and worked in a juvenile drug court for a very long time. And I had so many clients that to this day I still hear from, and I remember this one client very well, who he really struggled within the program, but he came from a family where there was generations of substance use disorder and mental health need. And the family was involved even in manufacturing of drugs and methamphetamines. And so it was difficult. And he struggled with it in the program. But he made some gains in the program. He was able to continue in school and graduate from high school. Whereas had we not been able to work with him, I'm not sure, he was one of the first in his family to do so.

 Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And he called me many years later and I just get this random phone call and I didn't even recognize the number. And he calls and says, "Hey, you probably don't remember me." And I said, "Of course, I absolutely remember you." When he started talking and sharing, he said, "I just wanted to call and tell you that I'm okay, that I ended up getting a job." He landed a great job in the trade and he was married and had three children and he was a union member and he was doing well. And so while he wasn't necessarily successful in the program in terms of being a graduate, he still had gained these other skills. He had been able to complete high school, which, again, allowed him then to have that high school diploma and to start into a trade, into the electrical trades. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
So there's a lot of stories out there like that. I understand I'm a researcher and we often deal with aggregate data, we look at things in the aggregate. But we shouldn't be afraid to look at this idea of what other areas can we help these youth and families build up in terms of that idea of recovery capital that I keep referring to and measuring that so that we can understand that it's more than just the absence of a new crime. 

Dr. Kristen DeVall:
I love hearing those stories, just I think really tell the full story.

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
He thought I wouldn't remember, but I certainly did remember. I don't forget these clients.

Dr. Kristen DeVall:
And I think, I mean, that story really exemplifies the importance of not excluding those individuals that are unsuccessfully discharged. They might not have gotten it this time around, given what we know about brain development and just maturity and all of those factors that in many ways, given where youth are situated within families, they don't have a lot of agency in terms of making decisions and that sort of thing, but thinking about the long-term impact of this program, right? So he wasn't successful "in the program", but he made incredible strides and is employed and has a family and paying taxes and those kinds of things. So I think looking at these programs and the long-term impact that they're having, I think that story just really speaks to the importance of that. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Yes. And I think it's important for listeners to remember, especially if you're working in the juvenile justice system, these are, if we look at like life course theory, which we've been talking about really, which is like, what can we do to equip these youth with different skills or different supports so that they can naturally exit that from crime or address their substance use disorder? Because we know that after the brain develops and they engage in significant relationships and they gain good employment, they're more likely to desist from crime. And these are the peak crime years, you know that between the ages of 15 to about 25 years of age are peak crime years, you don't see a lot of people at the age of 50 beginning a criminal career. It really is, there's this age crime curve that has been well documented by Farrington and Piquero and so many other researchers. And so what can we do because that is a peak time to help these individuals desist and move on? 

Dr. Kristen DeVall:
Dr. van Wormer, we would like to provide listeners with a call to action. So how can practitioners working in juvenile drug treatment courts take the information that you've talked about today and really utilize that in their day-to-day practice?

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
I think the takeaways from this podcast today would be the importance of building an integrated case plan for youth that allows the youth to have voice and choice in that process. So that begins with the use of normed and validated tools, the risk need assessment tool that courts need to be employing and need to be using. We know that a large portion of juvenile courts across the country, like upwards of 70% have a risk need responsivity tool at their disposal. It's part of the courts, they've been trained on it. But yet when they come to the juvenile treatment court, they just set that process aside. So that RNR tool, that risk-need-responsivity tool needs to be used, it needs to be normed and validated on an adolescent population. You want to make sure you're using a validated tool. And that you're using it to find the right population. You combine that tool with the substance use disorder assessments screeners and assessments. There's a whole, there's lists of these tools available through SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration or OJJDP, you can find these lists of tools and screening and assessment tools.

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And then once those are completed, that the youth needs to have voice in this process of building an integrated case plan. Because when you set the goals for the youth, they're not going to buy in to that process. And so when you're able to sit with that youth, and it's an integrated treatment plan between probation or case managers and treatment and the youth gets to help set the goals, and they're small goals, they're smart goals, which of course, means that they're specific and they're measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. And so maybe you're just setting weekly three small weekly goals with that youth each week, and then they're rewarded for that progress in court by the judge and by the team, you're more likely to see success. When we have these programs where there's these huge phases with 17 conditions in each phase, that seems insurmountable to a youth.

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
Remember, we talked about where they're at in their adolescent brain development in terms of their short term, they receive the most reward from these short term goals that they can affect. And so thinking about that in terms of the case plan, but also having this case plan very focused on helping the youth to build up their personal and their social and their community capital. So helping them to develop the values and the knowledge and the problem solving capacities and capabilities and self-awareness and self-esteem, that again ties back to how we need to help them with that cognitive development in that brain. You tie that with the social where we're trying to help them find those social activities, where there's sobriety, where there's people that are engaged in sober support, and then finding the connections in the community that promote this, addressing their substance use disorder. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
And so this case plan should really, again, the youth should have voice and choice and be allowed to help drive their own case plan because you're going to see stronger outcomes utilizing that process, utilizing these standardized and validated risk assessment and substance use screeners, developing the strong case plan and rewarding the youth based on their progress, so I think that the steps that they created, that the progress that they made and making sure that we're rewarding them on a continual basis in the sense that we don't want to wait a month to reward them for something when in fact that they really had a great week, they had met all three goals. In juvenile drug treatment court, we call it going three for three. And so if they go three for three, they get to pick from the fishbowl or they're given a small token, or they get to spin the wheel, maybe they get a little bit of time off of court the next week, they can leave early.

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
You'd be surprised when you start to ask the youth, what is valuable to them? Because what's valuable to one youth is not valuable to another. So when you start to ask the youth, what's valuable to them? So many programs think they need to have all these funds for incentives and for rewards, but really what these youth want, if you think about where they're at in their adolescent brain development, what do they want? They want their freedoms. So they want time off of court, they want an hour off of treatment, they want to stay out the curfew an hour later, they want to be able to stay the night at a friend's house if it's approved by the court. So really these rewards can be non-costly, not have a real significant cost if you just ask the youth what they want.

Dr. Christina Lanier:
We want to thank Dr. van Wormer for being here today to talk to us and educate us around the topic of juvenile drug treatment courts. Thank you so much for being here, Dr. van Wormer. 

Dr. Jacqueline van Wormer:
You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Christina Lanier:
And we want to invite our listeners to visit the Justice to Healing discussion board at ndcrc.org to continue the discussion around the State of the Field: Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts. Join us on the next episode of the Justice to Healing podcast. And remember, we can all do better.

 Voice Over [Outro]:
To our listeners, we thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoyed the show. Be sure to hit subscribe, stay updated on the podcast. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to stay engaged with us and check out our website, ndcrc.org. Thanks again. Catch you next time on Justice to Healing. 

The Justice to Healing podcast is presented by the National Drug Court Resource Center and was supported by the grant number 2019-DC-BX-K002, awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions in this podcast are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies in the United States Department of Justice.