Drug Treatment Courts
Running Head: DRUG COURTS AND THE TREATMENT OF SUBSTANCE
Drug Courts and
The Treatment of Substance Abusing Offenders
Traci R. Howard
Guilford Technical Community College
Drug treatment courts also known as Drug Courts, provide treatment services to offenders in the criminal justice system. These particular courts use various models to provide treatment to drug offenders such as strategies to assist offenders with recovery from substance abuse. The process of recovery is through a structured environment of drug and mental treatment, drug testing and graduated sanctions. Overall, drug treatment courts use various aspects combining treatment and the criminal justice system to provide a proper delivery …show more content…
They still have to go to individual sessions but only as needed and weekly social support groups are required as well. AA or NA meetings are still a requirement; court hearings are cutback to bi-weekly visits and probation officer meetings go to once a month. In this phase however, clients begin to concentrate on “life skills, especially those involving housing, education, employment, and transportation” (Wolfers, 2006). In addition, clients will need to take care of all court costs and fees before they can move on to the next phase By the end of phase 4, the client has received almost a year of drug treatment. Presence is still required for counseling (rather individual or group, whichever is necessary), social support groups and outside recovery groups as noted in Phase 3 but weekly attendance drops to once a week (Roll et al., 2005 & Wolfers, 2006). There should be an improvement in the participant’s life skills and if they have any problem areas they need to look into them such as employment or housing (Wolfers, …show more content…
3). This is not what the criminal justice policy-makers felt when they introduced this program to society. Instead they realized that substance abuse is long term and relapses will occur and this is what needs to be addressed as well their criminal issues (Cooper, 2007). Incarceration does not eliminate the problem of drug use. Incarceration even can make the drug addiction worse due to the fact that inmates can get drugs in prison and their mental issues are not addressed. In addition, the cost of drug courts is substantially lower than incarceration. The cost of incarceration per inmate per year is on average $20,000 per year (Skancke, 2005). The cost of drug courts is ranges from $1,800 to $4,400 per year per defendant (Skancke, 2005). Retired General Barry R. McCaffrey (2008) states that to help with these costs, “Public-private partnerships are critical to the success and future of drug courts, which are the best hope for breaking the cycles of addiction and crime” (pg. 1) . McCaffrey (2008) also believes that “every dollar spent on drug courts saves as much as $10 per day when compared to the high cost of incarceration. But what price can you put on getting a person-a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, an adolescent-off drugs and into recovery” (pg.
Drug Courts and
The Treatment of Substance Abusing Offenders
Traci R. Howard
Guilford Technical Community College
Drug treatment courts also known as Drug Courts, provide treatment services to offenders in the criminal justice system. These particular courts use various models to provide treatment to drug offenders such as strategies to assist offenders with recovery from substance abuse. The process of recovery is through a structured environment of drug and mental treatment, drug testing and graduated sanctions. Overall, drug treatment courts use various aspects combining treatment and the criminal justice system to provide a proper delivery …show more content…
They still have to go to individual sessions but only as needed and weekly social support groups are required as well. AA or NA meetings are still a requirement; court hearings are cutback to bi-weekly visits and probation officer meetings go to once a month. In this phase however, clients begin to concentrate on “life skills, especially those involving housing, education, employment, and transportation” (Wolfers, 2006). In addition, clients will need to take care of all court costs and fees before they can move on to the next phase By the end of phase 4, the client has received almost a year of drug treatment. Presence is still required for counseling (rather individual or group, whichever is necessary), social support groups and outside recovery groups as noted in Phase 3 but weekly attendance drops to once a week (Roll et al., 2005 & Wolfers, 2006). There should be an improvement in the participant’s life skills and if they have any problem areas they need to look into them such as employment or housing (Wolfers, …show more content…
3). This is not what the criminal justice policy-makers felt when they introduced this program to society. Instead they realized that substance abuse is long term and relapses will occur and this is what needs to be addressed as well their criminal issues (Cooper, 2007). Incarceration does not eliminate the problem of drug use. Incarceration even can make the drug addiction worse due to the fact that inmates can get drugs in prison and their mental issues are not addressed. In addition, the cost of drug courts is substantially lower than incarceration. The cost of incarceration per inmate per year is on average $20,000 per year (Skancke, 2005). The cost of drug courts is ranges from $1,800 to $4,400 per year per defendant (Skancke, 2005). Retired General Barry R. McCaffrey (2008) states that to help with these costs, “Public-private partnerships are critical to the success and future of drug courts, which are the best hope for breaking the cycles of addiction and crime” (pg. 1) . McCaffrey (2008) also believes that “every dollar spent on drug courts saves as much as $10 per day when compared to the high cost of incarceration. But what price can you put on getting a person-a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, an adolescent-off drugs and into recovery” (pg.