The organization known as the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections (IDJC) works primarily at controlling and trying to eliminate the problem of teenage substance abuse in Idaho. The organization works through the state agencies and targets young people who are reeling under some or the other kind of addiction and have committed some or the other offense under the influence of their substance of addiction. The prime intention of this organization is to identify such juvenile offenders, separate them from society for the safety of society and their own self, implement a suitable treatment approach to bring them out of their addiction and finally try to rehabilitate them back into active society.

While other parts of the world are considering juvenile offenders who are under the influence of chemical substances to be on par with mainstream offenders, the IDJC considers these juvenile offenders to be no different than mental patients and treat them accordingly. One of the main principles of functioning of the IDJC is that juvenile offenders are typical mental patients because their addictions are ruled by their brain and nervous system. It is these parts of their body that create in them the temptation for abusing the substance and then keep them under the addiction. For that reason, the young patients that are enrolled into these programs are subjected to psychiatric counseling and detoxification programs, sometimes against their will. In such cases, an elaborate intervention therapy might be practiced to first convince and motivate the patient to go through the treatment.

The Balanced Approach of the IDJC

One of the main premises of functioning of the IDJC is that they need to protect the common society from the juvenile offender and at the same time they need to protect the juvenile offender from the society. The equation needs to be balanced at both ends. Keeping the offender away from the society is a way to balance this equation. The approach that the IDJC uses is known as the Balanced Approach. This method is a part of the model of addiction treatment known as the Restorative Justice Model.

There are three main areas that the Balanced Approach of the IDJC tries to look into. These include:-

1.Keeping the societies safe from the rashness and the brashness of the juvenile offenders.

2.Creating in the young offenders a sense of wrongdoing so that they are remorseful for their actions and agree to make amends by participating in a recovery process.

3.Providing the juvenile offenders the means and opportunities by which they can go through a recovery process.

Managing the Tasks

It is not easy to implement such a program on a wide scale in a large state such as Idaho. For that reason, it becomes important to decentralize tasks. The duties of the IDJC are divided into each of the 44 counties that the state has. Each county has its own juvenile system that works under the ambit of the Juvenile Corrections Act. There are seven judicial districts in Idaho, and each of these is connected with the IDJC through District Liaisons. These provide judicial empowerment to the authoritative persons and bodies to implement the duties of the IDJC within the state of Idaho.

Activities

To keep their mission alive, the IDJC performs various activities. Each of these is targeted at bringing an end to the problem of teen substance abuse in Idaho. The following are some of the activities that are implemented by this organization.

1.It provides grants through federal agencies to organizations that are willing to work towards providing a solution to teen alcohol and drug abuse in Idaho.

2.The organization runs three correctional facilities for juveniles that are convicted of drug and alcohol related crimes in Idaho. These facilities are present at Nampa, St. Anthony and Lewiston. The main tasks of these correctional facilities are to create in the offenders a sense of guilt and motivate them to go through a recovery process, which is also conducted at the facility. The facilities have medical arrangements that can be used for persons whose addictions are too far gone to be removed through mere counseling and therapies.

3.There are also some community services that are organized and implemented by these centers. These community services are places where the offenders are made to live together, get counseled and undergo an educational program that can help them to understand the seriousness of their condition and work in unison towards coming out of their dependencies.

In this manner, the programs of the IDJC work effectively at the removal of the problem of substance abuse in Idaho among the younger generation.