Mentoring Programs in Juvenile Treatment Drug Courts: Understanding the Difficulties of Applying Best Practices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52935/Abstract
Mentoring programs have the potential to positively influence youth, especially at-risk youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Several researchers have proposed a set of mentoring “best practices” as guidelines to establishing successful mentoring programs that, if implemented appropriately, can yield positive results benefitting both the youth and the community. One particular juvenile justice program that can benefit from mentoring programs is the juvenile drug treatment court (JDTC) program. JDTC programs are diversion programs that provide assistance to youth who struggle with substance use issues and delinquency. Because these programs are community based and champion reintegration of youth in the community,
they are prime candidates for mentoring programs. In this study, data were collected from ten mentoring programs operating within JDTC programs. Researchers interviewed JDTC team members and mentor program workers, analyzed JDTC and mentoring program policy manuals, and held a focus group of JDTC and mentoring professionals. JDTC mentoring programs’
practices were subsequently compared to mentoring best practices proposed in the literature. Results suggest that there is relatively little overlap between current mentor best practices and JDTC mentor program practices. This is likely the result of several structural and population based barriers unique to JDTCs. Implications are discussed.
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