(TJJD) Youth Handbook - Texas Juvenile Justice Department

Multi-Disciplinary Team and Case PlanningEvery month, all types of staff will meet with you to talk about your treatmentprogram. This group of people is called a multi-disciplinary team, or MDT. YourMDT will be at least your case manager, a teacher, and a juvenile correctionalofficer (JCO) who knows you. Your parents are also invited to the meetings. TheMDT checks on your progress and decides how to help you stay on track. TheMDT can change your case plan and decide your CoNEXTions © stage. You are abig part of the MDT. Your case manager will help you be ready for the meetings.Stages of CoNEXTions ©Your progress through CoNEXTions © has five stages, ending with YouthEmpowerment Status (YES). Your stage shows what you are currently workingon. Once you meet the requirements of the stage, you go on to the next one. Thestages help you:• increase understanding of your risk and protective factors and how theyrelate to success in the community;• develop a community reintegration plan, which is a plan to go home, stayout of trouble, and do something constructive;• engage your family in your treatment; and• understand how your committing offense was related to risk factors,including their underlying attitudes, values and beliefs.To move to a higher stage, you also have to do your case plan goals, participatein groups and school, and apply what you have learned about behavior into yourdaily living. Your case manager will help you with what you have to do.Program CompletionWhen you reach (and stay at) YES Stage and you meet all of the otherrequirements explained to you, you will have successfully completed theCoNEXTions © program. This is an important step in getting released from asecure facility. You will also have to complete your minimum time and have yourrelease approved. If you do not reach the CoNEXTions © YES stage and you don’thave a determinate sentence (set by the court), you may still be able to bereleased after finishing your minimum time. In that case, the TJJD ReleaseReview Panel decides whether you have to stay in TJJD and get more treatment.It is best to work as hard as you can at treatment and stay out of trouble, not onlyto help yourself, but also because it makes getting released easier.LOOKING AHEADTAKING RESPONSIBILITY & DEFINING YOUR FUTURE31