Jackson County Community Family Court

Program in Oregon for parents with substance use disorders who have child welfare cases with a focus on linking parents with treatment, reducing criminality, and improving child welfare

The Jackson County Community Family Court was implemented in July 2001. This program is designed to take a minimum of 12 months from participant entry to graduation. The program population consists of parents with admitted substance abuse allegations whose children are wards of the court.

Team members include three judges, a coordinator, prosecutor, defense attorney, treatment providers, DHS child protection representatives, case managers, domestic violence advocate, housing advocate, a representative from the Family Nurturing Center, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs), and a CASA volunteer coordinator.

The goals of the program are to enroll parents in substance use treatment, reduce criminality of parents, and improve child welfare. Results are promising. More detailed information can be found here

Drug court participants were re-arrested significantly less often than the comparison group.

Continuum of Care
Treatment
Type of Evidence
Report with evaluation
Response Approach
Comprehensive services
Diversion
Family Support

Evidence of Program Effectiveness

According to an evaluation of the program by NPC Research: “Overall, the Jackson County Family Drug Court has successfully implemented its drug court program within the guidelines of the 10 Key Components [set by the National Resource Drug Center]. The CFC team includes representatives from a range of collaborating agencies and has one central agency coordinating treatment. The DHS Child Welfare caseworkers appear to collaborate effectively with program staff and to take a non-adversarial approach during team meetings and court sessions. The CFC offers specialized services to program participants including a successful drug use monitoring system. The judges have frequent and consistent contact with program participants and maintain individual caseloads so that each participant is assigned to one judge. This program is successfully collecting the majority of drug court data necessary for case management and evaluation in the Oregon Treatment Court Management System (OTCMS) database. Finally, this program has successfully established partnerships with community agencies.”

In terms of specific outcomes, “according to statewide treatment data, significantly more CFC parents enrolled in treatment in the year after the petition date than non-CFC parents, and in the year after drug court entry, the CFC program parents spent nearly twice as long in treatment than parents who did not participate in the program…Significantly more CFC program parents successfully completed treatment after program entry compared to parents who did not participate in the CFC…Children of CFC parents spent significantly less time in foster care in the 4 years after drug court entry than children of non-CFC parents, and they were returned [to their parents] significantly sooner than children whose parents did not participate…Drug court participants were re-arrested significantly less often than the comparison group over 4 years from drug court entry.”