A NEW DISTRICT court program will take a fresh approach to teen offenders who use drugs and alcohol.

Starting this summer, district courts in Laconia and Plymouth plan to begin implementing a juvenile drug court program that will offer young criminals counseling, support services and court supervision for their alcohol and drug problems.

According to Edwin W. Kelly, administrative judge of the NH district courts, the program will work by first identifying juvenile cases involving alcohol or drugs as an element of the offense or in which the offender is found to use drugs or alcohol. These cases will be removed from the regular docket and placed on a special juvenile drug court docket, still within the district court system.

Next will be an evaluation and assessment of the juvenile’s substance use and placement of the juvenile in a treatment program. Teens are offered different levels of services, depending on the level of drug and alcohol use.

For offenders who have only experimented with drugs and alcohol, there is a three-month educational program with minimal counseling. Those who have used drugs and alcohol for some time will be offered a six- to nine-month treatment program. And for those who are addicted, the court will approve out-of-community placement.

Kelly said that one of the goals of the new program is to avoid out-of-community placements by intervening before the juvenile’s drug or alcohol use becomes an addiction. "With early intervention, we’re working to prevent a more serious problem. We’re becoming heavily involved to turn things around," he said.

A group of essentially the same people will make up a "drug court team" working within the program: Participating will be treatment providers, a public defender and a DCYF juvenile probation and parole officer. A court coordinator will be appointed to manage the program.

Frequent meetings between service providers and the court coordinator will track the progress of program participants. Weekly court sessions will be held to determine if participants are keeping up their end of the deal and, if not, that there are immediate consequences.

Supporters of the juvenile program say it was created to address two problems—the prominent role alcohol and drug use play in most juvenile crimes, and the lack of programs to help teens deal with substance abuse problems. Kelly said the program would fill an important void in the state’s juvenile justice system; there are few programs aimed at young offenders, he said, despite "disturbing" statistics about teen alcohol and drug use.

According to Kelly, a recent study found that 53 percent of NH high school seniors polled said they had had one or more alcoholic drinks in the last 30 days, and 33 percent had had five or more at once. There were 650 juvenile DWI convictions last year, he said.

Not many states have a juvenile drug court, according to Kelly. The program is modeled on adult drug courts popular nationwide, which don’t exist in New Hampshire. In states that use the adult program, the courts can dismiss an original charge, reduce or set aside a sentence or offer a lesser penalty for successful completion of drug and alcohol treatment, counseling and educational programs.

Organizers of the NH juvenile drug court program are awaiting word from Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and the Executive Council on initial funding for the program through the Division of Alcohol & Drug Abuse Prevention & Recovery. If that funding is approved, a court coordinator should be appointed by the end of May and the first cases in the drug court would be heard in the fall, Kelly said.

The state has submitted a federal grant proposal to the U.S. Dept. of Justice to further fund the program and expects to hear about that proposal in August. If federal funding is obtained, Kelly said, the program will be expanded to Concord, Goffstown and Nashua within the next year.

After the three-year federal grant has run out and the program has proven itself, organizers will likely go before the state Legislature to ask for the continuation of state funding, said Kelly. "We need to take the three years to develop the program here in NH, prove that it works, then we can go to the Legislature. Once we can show this is a truly effective way to address substance abuse problems, we can expand into other courts," he said.

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