Characteristics Of Drug Courts

Unarguably, drug courts are specialized courts that are intended to manage adult, nonviolent offenders suffering from substance abuse issues. Thus, drug court integrates an extremely supervised drug treatment program as an alternative to regular sentencing from the court. Characteristics of drug court include the timely identification and placement of suitable applicants, drug treatment with concise goals and regulations, a cooperative approach, a monitoring of asceticism, jurisdictional participation and interaction with the applicants, and a team methodology in which probation officers, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and treatment therapists coordinate their efforts. In addition, offenders that complete the program efficaciously
Third, the drug court program significantly increases the length of time an individual stays in treatment. Moreover, the intimidating authority of the criminal justice system with reverence to getting into treatment and remaining in treatment is extraordinary. Generally, between forty and eighty percent of drug abusers drop out of treatment program within ninety days, and between eighty and ninety percent drop out within twelve months. Contrastingly, approximately two-thirds of the individuals that are in the drug court program complete the program that lasts a year or more. Furthermore, the advantages of the drug court treatment programs have been displayed in urban and nonurban communities. Obviously, the drug-court movement symbolizes a move away from a criminal justice policy focused on punishing drug users to a policy that concentrates on treatment and healing. Experts in the field of drug-abuse treatment state that the mandated treatment approach will prove more successful than in situations in which the choice to go to treatment is made on a volunteer basis (Levinthal,