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Drug Courts: A National Phenomenon
Drug courts represent the coordinated efforts of the
judiciary, prosecution, defense bar, probation, law enforcement, mental
health, social service, and treatment communities to actively and
forcefully intervene and break the cycle of substance abuse, addiction,
and crime. As an alternative to less effective interventions, drug
courts quickly identify substance abusing offenders and place them
under strict court monitoring and community supervision, coupled with
effective, long-term treatment services.
In this blending of systems, the drug court participant undergoes
an intense regimen of substance abuse and mental health treatment,
case management, drug testing, and probation supervision while reporting
to regularly scheduled status hearings before a judge with specialized
expertise in the drug court model (Fox & Huddleston, 2003). In addition,
drug courts may provide job skill training, family/group counseling,
and many other life-skill enhancement services.
No other justice intervention brings to bear such an intensive response
with such dramatic results; results that have been well-documented
through the rigors of scientific analysis. From the earliest evaluations,
researchers have determined that drug courts provide "closer, more
comprehensive supervision and much more frequent drug testing and
monitoring during the program than other forms of community supervision.
More importantly, drug use and criminal behavior are substantially
reduced while offenders are participating in drug court" (Belenko,
1998; 2001). To put it bluntly, "we know that drug courts outperform
virtually all other strategies that have been attempted for drug-involved
offenders" (Marlowe, DeMatteo, & Festinger, 2003).
With 1,183 drug courts currently in operation (Table I), 414 actively
involved in the planning process in 2003 (American University, 2003),
and another 184 jurisdictions accepted into the Bureau of Justice
Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice formal drug court planning
training series for 2004 (Mankin, 2004), drug courts are the future,
having transformed from a grass roots movement of "specialized courts"
to an institutionalized way of doing business in the courts. (Excerpt
from the National Drug Court Institute: http://www.ndci.org/courtfacts.htm)
http://www.nadcp.org/
Drug court definition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_court
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