Community Justice and Drug Treatment Court Policy

(© Michelle Sahl 1999)

 

What is Community Justice?

 

One example of Community Justice that has received growing attention over the past decade is the establishment of Drug Treatment Courts (or Drug Courts), sprouting up in numerous jurisdictions across the country.  In the mid- 1990s, Philadelphia initiated its first effort to utilize the Drug Court system in this city.  This position paper presents a proposal for expanding these successful law enforcement techniques to accommodate a broader number of both adult and juvenile participants who, along with the community, can benefit from this type of program.

 

What is a Drug Court?[i]

 

The country’s first Drug Court was established in Dade County, Florida in 1989.  The philosophy underscoring the drug court initiative reflected an innovative attempt to reduce the growing and intractable problems of drug-related crime and escalating prison populations.  The effort was founded on a novel collaboration between the justice system, law enforcement, and treatment/public health/social service systems. 

 

The key goals of most drug courts are to:

§         “Reduce drug use and associated criminal behavior by engaging and retaining drug-involved offenders in programmatic and treatment services;

§         Concentrate [interdisciplinary] expertise about drug cases into a single courtroom;

§         Address other defendant’s needs through clinical assessment and effective case management; and

§         Free judicial, prosecutorial, public defense [and prison facility] resources for [managing] non-drug cases.”[ii]

 

Functional highlights of the drug court model include:  1) comprehensive and judicial supervision of community-based treatment;  2) timely identification and referral to treatment of defendants following arrest;  3) regular status hearings before the judge to monitor defendant progress and program compliance;  4) increasing defendant accountability via graduate sanctions and rewards; and  5) mandatory period drug testing.  The judge, in these cases, takes on a more proactive and involved role with the defendant, unlike the more standard “arms-length” relationship.  As such, the judge serves as a reinforcer of positive client behavior.  Defendants who complete the drug court program (which can run an average of 12 to 18 months) either have their charges dismissed and expunged from the record (in a pre-sentencing model), or their probation sentences reduced (in a post-sentencing model).[iii].....