Drug Court Research Paper

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Over the past decade, many jurisdictions have come up with a way of dealing with drug and alcohol addiction which is by developing a drug court. The first drug court was established in Miami- Dale County in 1989 as a result of the up rise in crack-cocaine problems the county was facing. The justice professionals decided to fix this problem by combining drug treatment together with the structure and authority of the judge. A drug court in some cases might be referred to as a drug treatment court. Drug courts were quickly adopted by communities and states struggling with the challenges that stemmed from the growing abuse and trafficking of illegal drugs. The drug courts have become popular in dealing with drug offenders. 492 drug courts were…show more content…
A post- adjuction program is like a bargain whereby the courts suspend sentences while the offender must complete the treatment program and failure to comply will lead to the reimpose of the initial sentence. Being said in another way, if the desire and/or craving for drugs is reduced, the zeal to engage in crime will be minimal. The success of drug courts has created a new generation of problem-solving court programs that are successfully confronting emerging issues for our nation like for instance the Veteran's Treatment Courts who take charge of the needs of armed militaries who have a hard time adapting to a normal way of life because of the over exposure to battlefields or they can also help then with combat-related stress. Despite the prevalence of drug courts, there have been several contemplations as to how effective the drug court system is. In the struggle of determining how effective a drug treatment court can be, below will be an evaluation of the successes as well as the failures of the Chester County (PA) Drug Court Program, The Las Vegas Drug court (Clark County) and the Baltimore City Drug Treatment…show more content…
Most drug programs consists of a series of phases but in Chester county there are three phases involved which expects the participants to contact at least two probation officers once a week, take two drug test per week and drug court appearance every one to three weeks. The consistency in eligibility screening for drug courts participants, evaluation by a treatment specialist within two weeks of arrest, beginning of treatment within twenty days of arrest, disposition of drug court cases within 45 days of arrest and consistency in program completion are the main evaluation criteria used by this jurisdiction to determine the effectiveness of drug courts. The drug court participants in this research were similar to those of the comparison group in that they both met the screening criteria for eligibility, demographics, prior record, and prior drug treatment criteria. The Chester County (PA) Drug Court Program experienced major success rates as there were decreased cases of legal involvement (re-arrest and incarceration rates). Only 5.4% of the drug court sample had been rearrested as compared to 21.5% of the comparison group. Also, about 2.7% and 5.9% of the participants and comparison subjects had been charged with a new drug crime. The number of days spent in jail also declined. There was also a decrease

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