Yes we have been in the juvenile justice system. Of course it's different in every state so what we experienced may not be the same as others.
We began calling the police on difficult child when she was 14 and running away and going up the the skate park to hang out with kids who were smoking pot and doing other drugs. They began the paper trail needed to get her into the justice system downotwn. Since we are in a suburb of a large city, she was first sent through our mayor's court and put in the diversion program. When that didn't work they began sending the cases downtown, unruliness, drugs, domestic violence. I believe we went downtown with her at least 8 times. One of those times early on they sent her to juvenile detention from Friday-Monday. The attorney we hired worked it out with the judge to try to scare her. It worked and she was pretty good for her sophomore year of high school. Then it began all over again and escalated. None of the charges were bad enough to get them to actually sentenced her to detention. The detention center is overcrowded with serious offenders.
We stumbled through high school and she began college two years ago. She lasted one month until she was cited for underage drinking and drug paraphenalia, put on 6 months probation and community service and had to attend drug/alcohol counseling and after the semester she was suspended from the university.
The past two years have escalated with heavy drinking and pot smoking and we sent her to a 60 day residential treatment program and then a subsequent intensive outpatient program. The week she was released she relapsed. We kicked her out of the house a couple times since them. She is currently back home but with the understanding that if she does not stay sober/clean she has to leave.
Our experience with the juvenile justice system is that most of the magistrates we dealt with have no idea what to do with our kids. If they are serious offenders they lock them up. If the kid comes from a supportive family they would rather have the family handle the juvenile and put them on some restriction such as probation, drug testing, home detention. I wish there was a low level offender program they could sentence them too instead of introducing them to a much worse population and culture than they were with at home. When difficult child came home from her substance abuse program she came with a whole new group of friends, all drug abusers and most with very serious habits, cocaine, heroine, benzos. Several girls were prostituting themselves and she learned more that we wanted her to learn while there. There was also sexual contact between the patients, different sex and same sex. Of course it was not allowed and when found out was disciplined, but happened very often and difficult child was known as the resident **** while there.
I am convinced that none of the programs available really help most of our kids. The ones that want to get help and change will do so, but most will just get worse and become well entrenched in that culture and environment.
I wish I had more promising news. Our difficult child is currently doing ok. She knows we will not hesitate to call the police or kick her out if she is violent or acting out at home. She spent the week between christmas and new years on the street. She had enough money for only one night in a hotel and said she felt like she was like a guy who was kicked out of his house from cheating on his wife. We explained toher that she can live that life if she wants, in a hotel room by herself or worse, it's up to her. Of course she is now 19 so we have some leverage, but it is not easy kicking your kid out of the house.
Your daughter is 16 so she has to follow your rules. The police were always very supportive in telling our difficult child that she had nothing, it was all ours and she couldn't do anything that we didn't ok. All I can say is that I do think they helped keep her out of worse trouble until she became an adult and we no longer had to support her. You could ask the court to send her to another treatment program, or put her on probation for an extended time with reporting to a PO and drug testing, etc.
I hope you get some help because those are very difficult years. I'm glad you found us. Keep posting and let us know how it goes.
Nancy