Drug Court

In 1997, the Newton County Juvenile Drug Court was only a vision and plan among the local stakeholders in this community. By April 1998, the first session of drug court was held. Our court was the first juvenile drug court in Georgia and the first rural juvenile drug court in the nation. The drug court team is still functional and has more participating members than ever before. Through the existing drug court, we are able to offer programming to multiple levels of offenders. The court has one contracted Case Manager and two treatment programs. Newton County Mental Health offers multi-level programming and Project Impact, a grant funded program, provides substance abuse treatment and educational services. To date, the drug court program has successfully graduated 171 participants and is currently serving 51 youth and families.

Truancy Court

In the spring of 2001, the juvenile court adopted and implemented the Truancy Intervention Project to provide immediate intervention and support to the children of Newton County who exhibit high rates of truancy. All youth are monitored by a case manager and are required to appear in court or receive appropriate sanctions for any unexcused absences after being placed in the program with needed services. Members of the Georgia Bar (local attorneys) serve as mentors to the children and counsel the family throughout the length of the program. Since inception we have served an average of 50 to 60 youth per year.

REACH

The juvenile court took on yet another new program in the fall of 2003 with funds from the Children and Youth Coordinating Council. We were able to implement an abstinence only program to serve youth after school two days per week. Although based in abstinence, the REACH program provides multi-faceted programming for youth entering the court system for the first or second time. The mission of REACH is to Redirect and Educate youth on Abstinence, Choices, and Healthy living. Through this program we are able to offer tutoring, nutrition education, Life Skills, etiquette, and abstinence education. This program serves a total of 60 youth per year.

BARJ

In 2005, the juvenile court and the Newton County Community Partnership joined to form a collaborative to serve our community through Balanced And Restorative Justice. Funding for this program is provided by the Children and Youth Coordinating Council. The program is able to serve 50 children and families annually as a diversion program. These youth work to repair the harm and injuries to the community and the victim that resulted from their delinquent act. Balanced and Restorative Justice works to see that offenders take responsibility for meeting the obligations and that the youth have personal accountability to the victims and the community.

Other Specialized Programs

Newton County Juvenile Court not only offers these large diversionary programs, we also offer specialized programs for youth who are more serious or frequent offenders in the juvenile court. Life Skills is offered to youth 11, 12, and 13 years of age. These youth are required to attend 16 sessions of programming to learn various skills including resistance and social skills. The parents of these youth are also required to attend Active Parenting classes for a six-week period so that they may continue to enhance and reinforce skills learned by the youth. The court also offers a mediation program as an informal adjustment to youth who have caused harm or property damage to a specific victim. Community service programs and a weekend bootcamp are also made available to the court as disposition alternatives. In addition, the court continues to fund a sex offender program, TASA, for male offenders. This program serves youth on probation or commitment status on a weekly basis through individual and group counseling.