Reclaiming Futures: Speaking Out For Children Who Have No Voice

It is estimated that more than half of the youth involved with New Hampshire’s juvenile justice system also have a problem with substance abuse. Those of us who are judges assigned to juvenile court see them regularly, and the time has come for more of us to speak out publicly about the needs of these at-risk children.

The cost of substance abuse to society includes property damage, the consequences of drunk driving, violent behavior, and other public safety issues. Collateral effects include poor school performance, truancy, disciplinary actions, and a general erosion of the educational development of these youth, making them less employable, less productive as future employees and adult citizens.

Punishment alone will not cure a young person’s substance abuse problem. Our present systems are often ill-prepared to deal effectively with these young people and the problems they present. The services delivered are often fragmented and uncoordinated. Publicly supported programs are chronically short of funding. All too frequently substance abuse and mental health issues go hand in hand, making accessible, effective, and well-coordinated services even more important.

A study by the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies discovered that more than 2,000 young offenders in our state are estimated to have alcohol or drug problems, yet fewer than 500 have access to services to treat these problems.

The juvenile courts of our country have become the leading service delivery system for children and youth with substance abuse problems, not by choice, but by necessity.

Reclaiming Futures

With this in mind, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched Reclaiming Futures, a five-year initiative that brings problem-solving courts and systems of care together on behalf of substance abusing youth in the juvenile justice system. The project is now in its fourth year at demonstration sites within nine states, including drug courts in Nashua, Concord, Belknap County and Plymouth, New Hampshire. My court in Laconia is one of these demonstration projects.

While recognizing that youth must be held accountable for their actions, the motto of Reclaiming Futures clearly illustrates its new approach, “More treatment. Better treatment. More than treatment.” Not only are effective substance abuse treatment services needed, but so are opportunities for meaningful community involvement.

At these drug court sites, judges, project staff and community members work with local leaders to re-frame the way law enforcement, courts, probation, detention facilities, treatment providers, families, schools, and the community work together to restore young people to a drug-free and crime-free life.

Getting these young people on the right path does take the involvement of the entire community. Reclaiming Futures pulls together citizens, including professionals, and local leaders, and resources to improve drug and alcohol treatment, expand and coordinate support services, and match youth with volunteer opportunities, jobs and caring adult mentors.

The premise of the integrated system of care advocated by Reclaiming Futures is that successful recovery is complex and occurs within a vigilant network of community and family and community support. Young people do not recover from substance abuse in a single moment of clarity or as the result of a series of court mandates. Reclaiming Futures recognizes recovery as a process to be managed, not simply ordered.

Judicial Leadership

The Reclaiming Futures model has been built around the belief that judicial leadership is crucial to the creation of an effective system of care for juveniles with substance abuse and mental health issues who come into the justice system.

Judges occupy a unique position, one that allows us to speak to this growing problem. We hold an ethical obligation to insure the effective administration of justice. We require that our orders be carried out and that effective treatment be provided to the youth we find delinquent. Judges can effectively serve as conveners and facilitators, bringing together diverse parties and interests to forge solutions to seemingly intransigent problems.

The notion of the judge as a convener on behalf of the children and families of the community is the critical lynchpin for this new approach to juvenile justice, and judges have an obligation to speak to the needs of the nation’s at-risk children.

Here in New Hampshire and in the other Reclaiming Futures demonstration sites across the country, judges are speaking out on behalf of children who have no voice, drawing the attention of the community to their needs, and working with the community to secure the treatment and other assistance they need to restore them to drug-free and crime-free lives. 

Judge Martin was appointed to the Laconia District Court in 1972, where he primarily presides over juvenile cases. He serves as a judicial fellow of Reclaiming Futures and his court is one of its demonstration sites. For more information on Reclaiming Futures visit www.reclaimingfutures.org.

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