Adult Drug Courts

Drug court programs were established beginning in the late 1980s as a local response to increasing numbers of drug-related cases and expanding jail and prison populations nationwide. A drug court is a specialized court-based program that targets criminal offenders who have alcohol and other drug addiction and dependency problems. Drug courts have implemented deferred prosecution or post-adjudication case-processing approaches, or have blended both in their organizational structures. In drug courts, using deferred prosecution, defendants waive rights to a trial and enter a treatment program shortly after being charged; those who subsequently fail to complete the treatment program have their charges adjudicated, while those who complete the program are not prosecuted further. This book provides an overview and assessment of the adult drug court system, with a focus on the rate of recidivism and performance measure revision efforts.