Drug court helps Arkansas teen to correct his course

Program reduces juvenile detention

Circuit Judge Troy Braswell
Circuit Judge Troy Braswell

CONWAY -- When the boy broke a window at his home, his mother reached out to the criminal justice system for help.

"I was angry," recalled the son, now 16, adding that he was using and selling marijuana at the time.

The mother knew he had been getting into trouble at school and at home. He was falling asleep in classes and getting suspended. Still, she said, she didn't know he was smoking marijuana.

"Once he got put on probation [in January 2015], there were several times when they [authorities] drug-tested him," she said. "He tested positive for marijuana, so they asked us about the [juvenile] drug court, if it was something he'd be interested in."

More than a year later, on March 15, the teen became one of the three newest graduates of the Faulkner County Juvenile Drug Court during a ceremony in Circuit Judge Troy Braswell's courtroom in Conway.

"They're just good kids who needed to get back on the right path," Braswell said. "It's their hard work and resilience. I don't want to act like they're perfect, but when we had setbacks, they were resilient. They didn't give up. They kept fighting."

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is not publishing the teenagers' names because the identities of youthful offenders in the criminal-justice system are protected under state law.

The Faulkner County program is one of 12 juvenile drug courts in the state, said Connie Hickman Tanner, director of court services for the Arkansas Supreme Court's Administrative Offices of the Courts.

During the 2015 legislative session, Gov. Asa Hutchinson made $2.8 million in grant money available for specialty courts. The Faulkner County program received $50,000.

The Conway teenager who participated in the program recalled that his probation officer had talks with him "about what could happen if I kept going" in the wrong direction. Instead, the teenager got busy, and community service helped.

"Sometimes I had to wash cars, rake leaves, pick up trash," he said.

Since the Faulkner County program started in 2009, it has had 89 participants, of whom 33 have graduated, Braswell said.

Braswell, recently named the 2016 Drug Court Judge of the Year by the Arkansas Drug Court Professionals Association, cited "the tough standards required to successfully complete the program" as a reason the graduation statistic isn't higher.

"Another factor is the tight grip that addiction and broken families have on our community's youth," he said in an email. "Youth that continually use drugs, prescription pills and alcohol place themselves in dangerous situations and eventually limit their education and future opportunities."

One of the program's goals is to reduce the time a youngster spends in a detention facility, or jail. Instead of sending a youth to detention for 48 hours when he fails a drug test, for instance, the judge places him on an ankle monitor. While wearing it, "they can go to home, church and school," Braswell said.

The Conway teenager had to wear an ankle bracelet more than once during his time in drug court.

"I wasn't out hanging with the same people everyday," he said. "It gave me time to think about the mistakes I was making and getting in trouble."

Teenagers who want to participate in drug court undergo a risk assessment. The court tries to include those young people with a moderate or high risk for recidivism.

"We want to spend our time and energy and money to break the cycle. ... We want to bust the pipeline from juvenile court to adult court," Braswell said.

"Not all cases in drug court are drug charges," Braswell noted.

"Drug and alcohol abuse can manifest itself in several different ways," he said in an email. "For instance, a young football player begins abusing marijuana, starts skipping class, grades begin to drop and then he quits football. ... Eventually, the young man ends up in a local retail store stealing items, being involved in a fight or sneaking into an abandoned home to get high. While none of the potential charges may be related to the possession of drugs, there is a very real connection with the decisions he is making and the control that drug abuse has on his life."

Typically, a student takes eight to nine months to complete the juvenile drug court program.

The court partners with Counseling Associates Inc. to provide sessions for families to come together to discuss their problems.

"So many times we see kids that just don't have the support at home" they need, Braswell said. "I think we take for granted having a parent at home ... to say, 'How was your day? Did you have homework?'"

The young people meet with counselors as a group and talk about issues they face, Braswell said. The teenagers also have random drug screens, attend monthly court sessions and have a drug-court call-in line.

The counseling sessions create "almost a family atmosphere," Braswell said.

As the students "graduate into different levels" of the program, the court trusts them more, Braswell said. Instead of calling in to the court every week, they are allowed to call in every two weeks and then monthly.

"We want the juveniles to know [they] can do this without us being there ... without having to come into court every month," Braswell said.

The court also partners with the University of Central Arkansas' occupational therapy department. The teenagers get to visit the Conway campus and learn about life skills, from completing a resume to steering a driving simulator.

"An important part of drug court is providing incentives for good behavior," Braswell said.

"If I know one of the kids likes to go to movies, I may ... give him ... two tickets to a movie and a gift card to get some popcorn and Cokes," the judge said.

The grant money can be used for something as costly as the treatment some young people need or something as simple as rewards for good behavior.

The Faulkner County effort plans to add an "aftercare program" through Counseling Associates for graduates of the juvenile drug court. Its goal will be to help the young people develop "supports for drug-free living in the community," according to the county's grant proposal.

Rhonda Wood, an associate justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court, was a circuit judge when she successfully lobbied legislators for pilot juvenile drug courts, including the one she started in Faulkner County.

"It seemed illogical that we would wait and only have adult drug court when we could try and address substance abuse early on and before a juvenile becomes an adult offender with even more difficult abuse patterns," said Wood, who was chair of the Juvenile Drug Courts.

"With substance abuse, early intervention can make all the difference," Wood said in an email last week. "So many of the juveniles I saw had mental health issues that parents had failed to address and so they were self-medicating. Judge Braswell has really done an amazing job with this and it is so wonderful to see the juvenile court flourishing again and providing the help these juveniles need."

Hickman Tanner said juvenile drug courts require "a huge commitment for the judge for bench time" as well as a court with enough available docket time.

"You have to have a judge that's willing to take on the additional duties," she said. "Some judges have even started doing them [drug courts] in the evening."

When the Conway teen came to drug court, he had been removed from a "normal" classroom setting and was attending an alternative learning class, Braswell said.

"He was transferred due to his bad behavior and poor effort in class. He was also hanging out with several kids that were routinely in front of me for delinquency cases," Braswell recalled. Eventually, though, the youth "realized that he was in control of his future. He made a complete turnaround, his grades improved, he was moved back into the 'normal' classroom setting and he changed the people he spent time with. He is now a leader instead of a follower."

State Desk on 04/25/2016

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