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Drug and DUI Courts
Effectiveness with rehabilitation and treatment

Molly Wyman

Criminal Courts

Aprille Woodson-Campbell

South University

May 17th, 2021

Drug and DUI Courts 1

The criminal justice system has the aim of creating and maintain discipline in society. Every

country has created its own rules and laws to govern society and ensure that law is being

followed and there is no violation of the law. The basic aim behind creating laws is to draw the

line between right and wrong action, right actions being peace maintaining and wrong actions

damaging the peace. The criminal justice system creates justice but to do so, punishments are not

the only means. The first and foremost practice is to prohibit the crime from an occurrence. No

society can develop peace by just punishing the criminals. It achieves peace by ensuring the

crime does not occur and for this purpose, deterrence theory is used which states that the cost of

crime must exceed the benefit of the crime and when a potential offender does a cost-benefit

analysis before committing the crime. He avoids doing the crime because of the cost attached to

it. There are different techniques through which the criminal justice system ensures deterrence.

One such technique is the making of courts but there are again different kinds of courts. The

apparent and well-known courts are those which conduct the trial and gives a verdict in favor or

against the sentencing. But there are also adult drug courts and driving under influence courts for

adults and juveniles to deal with a particular issue of substance abuse and its subsequent crimes

(Colombini, 2017). This essay will discuss the role of drug courts for both juveniles and adults,

their advantages and disadvantages, and the relation to recidivism.

Adult drug courts and DUI courts and reducing recidivism rate:

Drug and DUI Courts 2

Adult drug courts are created with aim of providing a second chance to the drug users towards a

successful and peaceful life. The dug courts employ a cooperative approach where all concerned

stakeholders including the court, defendant, and prosecutor devise a plan where the offender has

to go through a rehabilitation process in order to get rid of substance abuse and drug issue.

Similarly, driving under the influence court also offers the offenders a new opportunity at life by

rehabilitating them through their drinking problem. Both these ideas are innovative and effective

solutions used for dealing with the issue of substance abuse and drinking problem within the

criminal court system. This way the offenders not only complete their sentencing but also learn

the consequences of their actions in a more detailed manner and give up on their bad habits

which landed them into the situation. These courts offer long-term drug treatment for the

offenders under the supervision of the court. Although there existed the usual courts which have

been dealing with the issue of DUI cases and drug cases but the innovative approach of drug

courts and DUI courts have been introduced because the aim of the criminal justice system is to

deter crime from an occurrence. When the criminal justice system comes across individuals who

have drug issues or drinking issues, then rather than sending them to prison for a fixed period of

time unsupervised the better approach is to help them get rid of the dug problem and drinking

problem and the specialized courts help them in the process. This way the recidivism rate is

expected to reduce. The effectiveness of drug courts and DUI courts can be measured through

the recidivism rate. The recent statistics who that graduate from drug court has 30% rate of five-

year recidivism. In other words, more than 70% of court graduates do not get involved in any

drug issue or Dui issue for the coming five years. This clearly states that the drug courts and Dui

Drug and DUI Courts 3

courts are effective in keeping people away from crime which was the basic aim of the courts

(Justice, 2011).

Cost-effectiveness of Drug courts and DUI courts:

The introduction of Drug courts and DUI courts is very cost-effective for the county. Every

country allocates a major share of its budget every year to regulate law and order situations. This

includes paying judges, prosecutors, maintaining the prison, providing food and other necessities

to the offender sin prions. This amount collectively becomes a huge chunk. On the other hand,

the amount needed for the drug courts and DUI courts is much moderate and lower than the

overall criminal justice budget. The drug courts are much cost-effective as compared to

incarceration costs. The average budget allocated to drug court on annual basis is about $ 10

million and this amount proves to be sufficient for handling a large number of people. On the

other hand, the same amount is needed for just housing almost 150 inmates in any prison for one

year. In other words, the amount cost on 150 inmates in prison can be sued for thousands of

people and this amount could actually reform their lives because their recidivism rate is much

lower than those who spend time in a general prison. The budget spends on incarcerated people

can be used for making the lives of people better by offering them rehabilitation hence it is more

beneficial than the routine courts (Woods, 2012).

Goals of juvenile drug courts:

The primary goal of juvenile drug courts is to provide an opportunity for juveniles to escape

from the criminal world. The drug courts for juveniles on the belief that juveniles do not have the

mental capacity to assess their actions and understand the consequences of their actions. This is

Drug and DUI Courts 4

why they are treated in a much lenient manner and special juvenile courts are created with a

focus on drug issues. The young children who end up doing drugs need not only rehabilitation

but also need a direction in life. This direction is also offered by the drug courts through

mentoring. The juvenile drug courts also aim at providing mentoring and family therapy to

children with drug issues. Moreover, vocational training, prosocial activities, and literacy skills-

building are some other goals of the juvenile drug courts. Juvenile courts establish special court

teams to achieve these objectives. These court teams include defense attorneys, judges,

prosecutors, evaluators, treatment providers, and representatives from the school. This is a

minimal team, more members could be added for instance the family members or guardians of

the children. Furthermore, the court developed a court-supervised program for the children

having substance abuse treatment. This program is implemented by the special team and it covers

every aspect of the child’s life. The program can be customized to deal with the issues of every

individual child.

The recurrence of offenses in the adult drug court and the juvenile drug court is dealt with

differently. Although in both courts, first times are given a lot of leverage and provided with

lenient sentencing if given and their program is designed with special consideration of reducing

any relapses. But in the case of the recurrence of adults, the adults understand that the law is

giving them a second opportunity but they will have to fulfill their part in order to be successful

at getting back to life. They have complete understanding and they are responsible for making

their own decisions. Hence when an adult recommits to a drug issue or commits a crime under

influence, he or she might not get very lenient treatment on recurrence of the crime. However, in

the case of juvenile adult court, the child offender does not get very strict treatment even after

Drug and DUI Courts 5

recurrence because they lack the full comprehension of their actions. They do not understand that

their actions will have long term implications and hence their guardian and parents carry more

responsibility than the juvenile himself and hence the juvenile drug courts do not hand out strict

treatment even after recurrence and that is the primary difference between the juvenile drug court

and adult drug court (Evans, 2019).

Advantages and disadvantages of juvenile drug courts

Juvenile drug courts play a central role in making the lives of thousands of children better by

providing them a second chance at life. Research reports show that the majority of those children

who get involved in drug issues and substance abuse lack a healthy environment around them

and they do not have the right guidance to teach them to differentiate between right and wrong.

The specialized teams created under juvenile courts including all concerned stakeholders as

mentioned above who devise a detailed program for the well-being of the juvenile. This is the

first and foremost advantage of the juvenile drug courts: their approach for correction and not

punishment. Furthermore, the juvenile drug courts are much more cost-effective as compared to

the incarceration cost. The incarceration cost of jails, prison, and the judicial cost adds up to

more than the cost needed for putting young children in the rehabilitation process and given a

second chance on life. Similarly, another key advantage of these courts is that they reduce the

criminal behavior and drug abuse problem by providing the right mentorship and medical

treatment. Recidivism is much lower through juvenile drug courts because it focuses on

removing the reasons which are putting youngsters on the path of crime. The treatment program

by drug courts is much comprehensive and longer which ensures that the substance issue is

Drug and DUI Courts 6

resolved at a deeper level and the root causes are figured out and dealt with. Moreover,

awareness is created in society about drug abuse and its consequences (Justice, 2011).

However, there are downsides of the juvenile drug courts as well. There is less supervision in the

program designed by the drug courts as compared to probation and children need more

supervision especially when they are recovering from substance abuse and this could create a

problem. Although the focus of the drug court programs is to ensure that no relapses occur but if

they do, then the whole effort and resources are wasted. Similarly, other shortcomings are that

offenders have to let go of their trial rights and they have to accept that they have been doing

substance. This way they cannot plead innocent and they have to spend much longer time in the

adult rehabilitation program than the usual time they would have spent in the prison. Lastly, an

important drawback is that the drug courts have the authority of overruling the recommendation

of a physician for the treatment of the offender as the offender has to strictly adhere to the court

orders of treatment.

Drug and DUI Courts 7

References

Colombini, D. E. (2017). Juvenile Drug Courts. Springer Link, 263-283.

Evans, S. (2019, April 23). 19 Biggest Pros and Cons of Drug Courts. Retrieved from Connect

us: https://connectusfund.org/19-biggest-pros-and-cons-of-drug-courts

Justice, U. D. (2011). Juvenile Drug Court Programs. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention.

Woods, E. (2012, May 12). Juvenile Drug Courts Help Youth Dealing With Trauma. Retrieved

from SAMHSA: https://www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources/hpr-

resources/juvenile-drug-courts-help-youth

Drug and DUI Courts 8

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