NEW PROGRAM TREATS DRUG ABUSE IN YOUTH OFFENDERS

Children who commit crimes often use drugs or abuse alcohol -- or are close
to someone who does.

With this in mind, courts in Hampton Roads are focusing more attention on
substance-abuse treatment for juvenile offenders, using money from a new
state program.

Since the early 1990s, "kids who go through the juvenile court system, the
majority have some sort of substance-abuse problem," said Jeffrey Shelton,
an administrator with the Chesapeake Community Services Board.

"The substance-abuse problems are more severe than six or eight years ago."

A 1999 law now requires courts to look for drug problems in juveniles who
commit serious crimes.

Nearly a third of 3,600 children screened during the second half of this
year needed substance-abuse treatment, said Scott Reiner of the state
Department of Juvenile Justice.

Now, through funding from Gov. Jim Gilmore's Substance Abuse Reduction
Effort Program, or SABRE, the state's 35 court services units will use
$1.17 million to ensure that young people in the court system get the
treatment they need.

Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach will use the money -- about
$40,000 each -- to create new jobs.

A larger staff will allow them to offer more family therapy and peer
support groups for children with severe problems, officials said.

Norfolk will use the money to pay state-approved companies to provide
treatment, said Elizabeth Hiner, substance-abuse specialist with the
Norfolk Court Services Unit.

"We try to get them the treatment they need to get them to the abstinence
state," Hiner said.

"It's a real hard disease to treat."

All three cities will track the number of children referred to programs,
whether they complete the treatment and whether they are rearrested, Reiner
said.

That recidivism number is important for SABRE, a $25.5 million program
meant to fight drug-related crime through increased enforcement, treatment
and prevention.

About $14 million has been set aside to reduce crime by providing drug
treatment to prior offenders.

Between 1998 and 1999, about 46 percent of young people paroled or released
from juvenile correctional centers ended up back in the court system, state
figures show.

Officials haven't set a goal for reducing recidivism among juveniles,
Reiner said. And they won't decide until next summer how to spend the $2.34
million earmarked for next year.

But Reiner is convinced that more attention to young offenders with
substance problems will eventually reduce crime.

"As time goes on and the problem gets worse, kids get further detached from
the things they need to do to be successful," Reiner said.

"If we can interrupt the cycle of offenses and drug use while someone is a
juvenile, it has a number of advantages."