A Comparison of Male and Female Drug Court Participants.
Corrections Compendium › Vol. 25 Nbr. 6, June 2000
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A Comparison of Male and Female Drug Court Participants.
Drug courts emerged during the 1980s as a way to improve the flow of drug-related cases through backlogged court systems and to better address the treatment needs of drug-involved offenders (Drug Court Programs Office, 1997). Since 1989, with the inception of the Miami Drug Court, the concept has been implemented in more than 300 jurisdictions nationwide (Drug Court Programs Office, 1998). Drug court programs typically combine early intervention, judicial involvement in monitoring offenders' treatment progress, and the use of sanctions and incentives to encourage an offender's abstinence from drugs and alcohol (Goldkamp, 1994; Drug Court Programs Office, 1997). In many jurisdictions, offenders who successfully complete substance abuse treatment programs are rewarded with dismissal of the original charges or reduced penalties.
Drug courts differ from traditional court models in several ways. First, drug courts downplay the adversarial in favor of the collaborative process by recognizing that the system must be involved in drug abuse treatment (Drug Court Programs Office, 1997). Prosecutors and defense counselors work together with judges, treatment professionals and probation officers to achie...See the full content of this document
