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The mission of the
Tippecanoe County Juvenile Drug Treatment Court is to reduce juvenile crime
and drug use of non-violent youth offenders through intensive judicial
supervision, community services and treatment of children and families
thereby strengthening juvenile and family functioning and community safety.
The purpose of the Drug
Court is to provide substance abusing and dependent juvenile offenders
access to long-term treatment services while under the strict supervision of
the Drug Court.
The Drug Court takes a
non-adversarial team approach working as a team with offenders and their
families to reduce illegal drug use and criminal activity among Drug Court
participants. Team members include the Drug Court judge, the prosecutor,
public defender, probation officer, law enforcement, and treatment
providers.
The Drug Court provides an
innovative alternative to the traditional, fragmented method of handling
criminal cases by uniting the criminal justice and treatment services in an
effort to break the cycle of drug-driven criminal behavior. Through this
approach the Drug Court team is able to encourage substance free behavior by
holding all clients accountable for their behavior and performance while
working to build the developmental assets of each youth and family.
For Tippecanoe County, the
Juvenile Drug Court stands as an answer to the growing substance abuse
problem that can no longer be ignored. It represents a proven
means for offenders to attain short and long-term goals that will increase
the sobriety of alcohol and drug-related offenders. This reduction is
substance abuse has been proved to decrease the number of repeat crimes and
effectively supports these youthful offenders in becoming productive,
law-abiding citizens.
This project has been made
available to our community through collaboration of a number of stakeholders
interested in improving the lives of children, their families and our
community.
The Community and
Family Resource Center partners with the Tippecanoe County Juvenile Drug
Court by providing assessments to help determine if offenders are
appropriate for the program, and also offers in-home case management
services to assist the juveniles and their families through this process.
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