This report describes outcomes of a survey that investigated the external environment of juvenile courts and whether this environment relates to the treatment of young offenders or custody decisions. In 1997, a statewide survey was administered to all courts with juvenile jurisdiction in a Mid-Southern state. This research was based on 71 courts from whom a completed survey was obtained from the judge. Together, these courts handled over 33,000 youth during 1997 who were referred to them for either a status or delinquency offense. Three measures of service-related decisions were assessed, based on courts offender population only: (1) courts rate of referral to mental health services; (2) courts rate of referral to substance abuse services; and (3) courts custody rate. Results found on average that courts referred about 3 percent of offenders to mental health services and about 4 percent to substance abuse services. Their rate of custody was about 8 percent. Regarding interagency relations, courts had nearly weekly, but less than daily contact overall with other child-serving agencies in their communities. Mental health referral rates were higher for courts located in urban areas having more service resources and for courts that maintained more frequent contact with other child-serving agencies. (CR)