Bronx Family Treatment Court 2005-2010: Impact on Family Court Outcomes and Participant Experiences and Perceptions

• NCJ Number: 236796
• Author(s): Sarah Picard-Fritsche; Jennifer Bryan; Dana Kralstein; Erin Farley
• Date Published: August 2011
• Length: 84 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2004-DC-BX-0048
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Sale Source: Center for Justice Innovation
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Annual/Periodic)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report from the Center for Court Innovation presents an evaluation of the Bronx Family Treatment Court for the period 2005 through 2010.

Abstract

Highlights from this evaluation of the impact of the Bronx Family Treatment Court (FTC) on family court outcomes include: for the period 2005 through 2010, 880 child neglect cases were screened and 211 cases were enrolled in the FTC; the majority of the participants (79 percent) had 1 or more children removed from their care; 87 percent of the participants were female, 48 percent were Black, 42 percent were Latino, and 61 percent were never married; the most common drugs used by participants were marijuana, cocaine, and crack cocaine; participants spent an average of 19 months enrolled in the Bronx FTC, and almost 98 percent of participants committed at least 1 infraction during their time with the program; and children involved in the program who were removed from their parents' care took an average of 16.1 months to be permanently reunified with their parents, compared to 12.6 months for comparison children not involved in the program. This report from the Center for Court Innovation presents an evaluation of the Bronx FTC for the period 2005 through 2010. The Bronx FTC, based on the adult drug court model, orders parents with a child neglect case and underlying substance abuse treatment allegation into treatment. The intent of the evaluation was to assess the success of the court in dealing with child neglect cases. Interviews were conducted to determine the court's impact on participants' service experiences, perceptions of the judge, case managers, and court process. The evaluation found that while the Bronx FTC did not have a positive impact on traditional permanency outcomes with neglected children, it did provide advantages to participants, such as better case manager, better ancillary services, and more positive perceptions from the court's judges. Tables, figures, references, and appendixes