FAULKNER COUNTY, Ark. (KTHV) -- The Faulkner County Juvenile Drug Court is seeing a decrease in the number of kids going to jail.
Circuit Judge Troy Braswell said he's seen a 95 percent reduction in the kids coming in and out of their jail and they're seeing a 33 percent reduction in the charges filed by the prosecuting attorney’s office.
“We're seeing the number of kids going into our detention facilities drop by 47 percent. Components to our success is a new risk assessment tool as well as community support, and our partnerships with UCA, Deliver Hope, the Sheriff’s Department, and the police department,” he said.
The court offers different resource groups within their 9 to 12 month program.
Some of the different activities juveniles can participate in includes; a therapy program group at UCA, boxing, gardening, counseling, a summer job program, yoga, sewing, sober support groups, and many more
A 17-year-old that asked to remain anonymous just finished the program.
“Ninth and tenth grade in school were my worst years. I got into the wrong crowd and started using drugs. I would sneak out every night and ride around with my friends and do drugs and one night I got pulled over at three in the morning and I had some weed on me,” they said.
The teen said the different activities taught him life lessons, kept him busy, and put his life back together.
“I went to one of the groups called Kai, it was a program at UCA. We would work on life skills and we would work on goals and things we wanted to achieve,” they said.
In the program, family participation is heavily encouraged. Judge Braswell said the parents have to be engaged and involved to help them keep kids out of jail.
“The kids that have parents at home that are willing to step up and make tough decisions and support their kids, their success rate is so much higher,” he said.