MISSION STATEMENT:

It is the belief of the Family Focused Juvenile Drug Court (FFJDC) that the adolescent criminal justice population has a substance abuse problem which is a primary factor in the causation of crime within Iberia Parish and the 16th Judicial District of Louisiana. Iberia Parish Outpatient will provide intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment to adolescents and their families as required without the utilization of waiting lists.

GOALS:The overall goal of the proposed Juvenile Drug Court in Iberia Parish is to provide early intervention with at-risk adolescents who currently manifest behaviors that will produce future criminal activity, especially violent criminal behavior.

Additional Goals and Objectives:

• To assist families of substance abusing youths in dealing with their own drug and alcohol problems.
  
• A fifteen percent (15%) reduction in non-violent juvenile offenders incarcerated either in Juvenile Detention facilities or in State Juvenile Correctional Facilities.
  
• A fifteen percent (15%) reduction in the overcrowding of court dockets with non-violent drug cases in Iberia Parish's Juvenile Court during the grant period.
  
• A thirty percent (30%) reduction in re-arrests for criminal activity by non-violent drug using offenders who complete the Family-Focused Juvenile Drug Court.
  
• A forty percent (40%) reduction in re-arrests for drug-related offenses by offenders while participating in the Family-Focused Juvenile Drug Court.
  
• Improvement in the emotional, psychological and spiritual well being of seventy-five percent (75%) of the non-violent juvenile drug offenders who complete the treatment program.
  
• To facilitate, where appropriate, the acquisition or enhancement of academic, vocational, and pro-social skill development of criminal defendants.
  
• Increased supervision of drug-using juvenile offenders who remain in the community for approximately two years through outpatient treatment, aftercare and probation officers assigned to the Family-Focused Juvenile Drug Court.
  
• Implementation of the automated data collection system and data base currently used to track clients in the Adult Drug Court program in the Juvenile Court.
  
• Provision of an outcome evaluation to document the implementation of the Family-Focused Juvenile Drug Court.
  
• Provide a family-focused drug court program for 50 families with substance abuse problems.