Drug courts are specialized courts designed to handle cases involving offenders who abuse addictive substances. The judiciary, prosecution, defense bar, probation, law enforcement, mental health, social service, and treatment communities work together to break the cycle of addiction.

Drug courts offer offenders charged with less-serious crimes of being under the influence, possession of a controlled substance, or even drug using offenders charged with a non-drug related crime the option of entering the drug court system in lue of serving a jail sentence. Offenders will have to plead guilty to the charge, agree to take part in treatment, regular drug screenings, and regular reporting to the drug court judge for a minimum of one year. Should the offender fail to comply with one or more of the requirements they may be removed from the drug court and incarcerated at the judge's discretion. If they complete the drug court program the charges brought against them are dropped.

Drug Courts in the United States

The first drug court in the U.S. took shape in Miami-Dade_County,_Florida in 1989 as a response to the growing crack-cocaine problem plaguing the city. Chief Judge Gerald Wetherington, Judge Herbert Klein, then State Attorney Janet_Reno and Public Defender Bennett Brummer designed the court for nonviolent offenders to receive treatment. This model of court system quickly became a popular method for dealing with the ever increasing number of drug offenders. Between 1984 and 1999, the number of defendants charged with a drug offense in the Federal courts increased 247%, from 11,854 to 29,306. By 1999 there were 472 drug courts in the nation and by 2005 that number had increased to 1262 with another 575 drug courts in the planning stages; currently all 50 states have working drug courts.

Screening Process

Most drug courts do not accept all offenders of drug related crime, often choosing to rule out violent offenders and those that sell drugs. Some courts choose to screen out offenders that are considered a risk. Some courts prefer offenders who have gone through treatment previously while others prefer the opposite. In the first 4 years of the Miami drug court, roughly 20% of all offenders of drug related crimes were accepted into the court.

The Judge’s Role

The judge provides the structure by which to live and enforces the rules of the program and uses incentives to encourage offenders to remain in the program and on the right track. One tool the judge has available is the drug screen, a process that checks offenders for recent drug use. Judges often have discretion as to how frequently an offender is checked. It is important that a judge check often enough to discourage drug use while not so often as to alienate an offender’s trust. The judge also has the option to punish or be lenient with an offender that has strayed from the program or broken the rules. Usual punishments include jail time or the expulsion from the drug court program.

Treatment Centers

Treatment centers are responsible for the actual curing of the addiction and there exists a fundamental relationship between their success and the success of the offenders. Communities often experience difficulty properly funding treatment centers and often rely on existing treatment centers to donate facility and employee time to aid the court. Drug courts can affect a treatment center’s ability to effectively treat offenders due to an overwhelming increase in the number of patients. Success of a treatment center also depends on the methods of treatment used and level of employee training. A good scenario for drug courts is for all treatment centers that specialize in a single drug or patient type to be available to the drug court for use.

Incentives for success

The factors that keep a drug offender within the drug court system vary between courts, but common incentives include increased jail time for failure, the promise of charges being dropped for success, and the support of the treatment centers. Offenders who lie to judges or suffer from a relapse are often given a week in jail or, if the behavior continues, can be removed from the program all together, often resulting in stiff jail time sentences. Positive incentives can include high school equivalency or GED programs, vocational training, and a graduation ceremony with a certificate of completion. Often programs are designed to involve multiple stages, which reward offenders with increased freedom as they reach each stage. Drug courts may also have alumni programs for those who have successfully completed the program. This allows graduates to give back to the community, aid the drug court, and help current offenders.

Recidivism rates

Cost benefit

In 1999 the average annual cost of housing someone convicted of a drug related crime in prison was $64,157, while the annual cost per offender in a drug court system averaged $3000 (Mountjoy, 1999).

Criticisms

Additional Reading

• Clayton, Robert M. (1999). Missouri's Experience with Drug Courts. Spectrum, 72, 30-32.

• Craddock, Amy. Rochester City Drug Treatment Court. (1999). Rochester Drug Treatment Court Participation Characteristics 1995-1998. Rochester.

• Finn, Peter, and Andrea K. Newlyn. National Institue of Justice. (1993). Miami's "Drug Court" A Different Approach. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.

• Goldkamp, John S., and Doris Weiland. National Institute of Justice. (1993). Assessing the Impact of Dade County's Felony Drug Court. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.

• Huddleston, C. West (1998). Drug Courts and Jail-Based Treatment. Corrections Today, 60. 98-101.

• Kaye (1999). Making the Case for Hands-On Courts. Newsweek, 134, 11.

• Mountjoy, John J. (1999). Drug Courts: Making Prison Sentences a Thing of the Past? Spectrum, 72, 2-4.

Links

• National Drug Court institute and National Association of Drug Court Professionals website. This site is both the NDCI and the NADCP.
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service NCJRS is a federally funded resource offering justice and substance abuse information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide.
• Drug Court Clearinghouse School of Public Affairs Justice programs office at the American University.