Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Grits for Breakfast

Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

Teen drug court in Beaumont diverts youth from TYC

I was interested to learn that Jefferson County (Beaumont) is using a drug court model in juvenile court, according to KBMT-TV:Jefferson County's new Teen Drug Court [is] sponsored by the judges who operate the county's family court program.It pairs kids with mentors and checks on their progress on a weekly basis.Judge Randy Shelton says; 'If we send them off to placement or the Texas Youth Commission it would cost 50 to 60 thousand dollars a year."Juvenile probation authorities tell us between 300 and 500 each year go through the criminal justice system in Jefferson County with drug related problems.If not for alternative programs like this these kids could end up behind locked doors.Though juvenile courts already tend to use many of the strong probation tools utilized in drug courts, I'm not sure I'd seen the drug-court model specifically applied to teens elsewhere...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 18, 2009 (boomark / email).