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Drug Courts: A Model for DUI

A quiet revolution has taken place within our criminal justice system.  The first round was fired in 1989, when the Nation's first drug court was established.  Today, some 550 drug courts are operating or being planned in communities across the United States (American University, 1999).

Drug court programs vary from one jurisdiction to another depending upon the resources and needs of the communities they serve.  The typical program participant is a nonviolent offender, charged with a drug-related crime.  He or she agrees to undergo comprehensive drug abuse treatment, and is subjected to close supervision and frequent drug testing.  Sanctions and incentives are employed to keep the offender on track.  They are imposed by the judge of the court, who becomes a constant fixture in the life of the offender during his or her stay in the program.

About half of all drug courts are diversion programs.  Those who do not graduate face prosecution and sentencing for their original charges.  Charges against those who successfully complete the program may be reduced or dropped.

Drug courts represent an innovative judicial experiment in which offenders are held accountable for their actions but afforded the tools they need to break the patterns of drug abuse that so damage their lives and the communities in which they live.  Typical drug court goals are to reduce drug use and associated criminal behavior by engaging and retaining drug-involved offenders in programmatic and treatment services; to concentrate drug-case expertise into a single courtroom; to address other defendant needs through clinical assessment and effective case management; and to remove nonviolent drug offenders from traditional courtrooms and jails, freeing these institutions to focus on more serious crimes and criminals.

Early indications are that drug courts are achieving their goals, and that they offer great hope for long-term reduction in drug-related crime.  In a critical review of 30 evaluations of two dozen drug court programs, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) concluded that drug courts lower recidivism, reduce drug use, and reduce both direct and indirect costs of investigating and adjudicating drug-related crime (Belenko, 1998).  They succeed because they manage to engage offenders, and keep them engaged, in their programs.  In a 196 survey conducted by the Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project, six reporting jurisdictions reported retention rates from 62 percent to 90 percent (Drug Strategies, 1997).

As mounting evidence proves time and time again that drug courts work, the drug court model has been adapted to other criminal justice populations.  Domestic violence courts, mental illness courts, and even "deadbeat dad" courts have patterned themselves after drug courts.  Perhaps the most important "spinoff" is the application of drug court principles to DUI cases.

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This web page was created by the American Council on Alcoholism 
to serve as a resource for information about DUI courts.

This page was last updated on 4-30-2003.