1. Drug Court integrates alcohol and other drug treatment services with justice system case processing.
Drug Court promotes recovery through a coordinated response to offenders dependent on alcohol and other drugs. Meeting these goals requires a team approach that includes collaboration of the judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, probation authorities, law enforcement, treatment providers and other community agencies.
2. Using a nonadversarial approach, prosecution and defense counsel promote public safety while protecting participants’ due process rights.
To facilitate an individual’s progress in treatment, the prosecutor and defense counsel must put aside their adversarial courtroom relationship and work together as a team. Once a defendant is accepted into the Drug Court program, the team focuses on the participant’s recovery and law-abiding behavior, not on the merits of the pending case.
3. Eligible participants are identified early and promptly placed in the Drug Court program.
An arrest can be a traumatic event for an individual. It creates an immediate crisis and can force substance-abuse behavior into the open, making denial difficult. The period immediately after an arrest provides a critical window of opportunity for intervening and introducing the value of substance-abuse treatment. Judicial action, taken immediately after the arrest, capitalizes on the crisis nature of the arrest and booking process.
4. Drug Court provides access to a continuum of alcohol, drug and related treatment and rehabilitation services.
In Drug Court, the process begins in the courtroom and continues throughout the participant’s Drug Court involvement. While primarily concerned with criminal activity and substance abuse, the Drug Court team also helps ensure that other issues such as mental illness, medical problems, homelessness, educational deficits and unemployment are addressed. If these issues are not addressed, they could impact the participant’s success and compliance in treatment.
5. Abstinence is monitored by frequent alcohol and other drug testing.
Frequent and random court-ordered drug testing, which also takes place during evenings and weekends, is an essential tool to help the participants stay clean. An accurate testing system is the most objective and efficient way to establish a framework for accountability and to gauge each participant’s progress. Drug testing makes the participant an active and involved part of the treatment process rather than a passive recipient of services.
6. A coordinated strategy governs Drug Court responses to a participant’s compliance.
Abstinence and public safety are the ultimate goals of Drug Court, but many participants exhibit a pattern of positive urine tests within the first months following admission. Because addiction takes a long time to develop and many factors contribute to addiction and dependency, it is rare that an individual stops using as soon as he/she begins treatment. Although Drug Court professionals recognize that participants have a tendency to relapse, continuing use is not condoned and a coordinated strategy, including a continuum of responses to each relapse and other issues of noncompliance, are essential. Drug Court must also reward cooperation. Small rewards, such as praise from the Drug Court judge and team, increased privileges and lessened restrictions, have an important effect on a participant’s sense of purpose and accomplishment.
7. Ongoing judicial interaction with each Drug Court participant is essential.
Kentucky Drug Court judges volunteer their time to the program. The judge is the leader of the Drug Court team. Drug Court requires judges to step beyond their traditionally independent and objective arbiter roles and develop new expertise. The Drug Court structure allows for early and frequent judicial intervention. A Drug Court judge must be prepared to encourage appropriate behavior, and discourage and sanction inappropriate behavior. Ongoing judicial supervision communicates to participants, often for the first time, that someone in authority cares about and is closely watching what they do.
8. Monitoring and evaluation measure the achievement of program goals and gauge effectiveness.
Coordinated management, monitoring and evaluation systems are fundamental to the effective operation of Drug Court. Because the Drug Court concept is still fairly new, the program must consistently demonstrate tangible outcomes and cost-effectiveness, and must have systems in place to monitor daily activities, evaluate the quality and effectiveness of services provided, and produce longitudinal evaluations.
9. Continuing interdisciplinary education promotes effective Drug Court planning, implementation, and operations.
Interdisciplinary education exposes criminal justice professionals to treatment issues and treatment professionals to criminal justice issues. It also develops a shared understanding of the values, goals and operating procedures of both the criminal justice and treatment components.
10. Forging partnerships among Drug Court, public agencies and community-based organizations generates local support and enhances the effectiveness of the Drug Court program.
Because of its unique position in the criminal justice system, a Drug Court is well-suited to develop coalitions among community-based service organizations, public criminal justice agencies and treatment delivery systems. Drug Court is a partnership among organizations dedicated to taking a cooperative approach to the drug-addicted offender.