Blog from the Justice Programs Office
Treatment Courts (also sometimes referred to as problem solving courts or specialty courts) are specialized programs to help justice-involved individuals receive treatment for substance use and other mental health disorders, and they have proliferated across the country over the past three decades. The most common of these treatment courts is the adult drug court. The National Drug Court Resource, Policy, and Evidence-Based Practice Center (NDCRC) is the go-to place for drug court practitioners to access a wide variety of resources to make their programs as effective as possible. Housed at the Justice Programs Office at American University, the NDCRC has collected sample forms, research, a map of drug and other treatment courts across the country, and other resources that these practitioners can use to help their participants receive the treatment they need to get their lives back on track.
Over the past decade, veterans treatment courts have transformed the way the justice system identifies, assesses, and responds to veterans. One of the keys to veterans treatment court’s success has been the inclusion of veterans from the community who serve as mentors to their fellow veterans in crisis.
Continue reading “Veteran Mentors in Veterans Treatment Court: Engage, Encourage, Empower”
It’s no secret that substance use disorders are linked to mental health issues. According to SAMHSA, over 7.9 million Americans experience co-morbidity (two or more conditions at a time) with a mental and substance use disorder.[i] Drug courts are designed to bridge the gap between substance use treatment and the criminal justice system, but mental health treatment is often an overlooked link. For participants in drug courts nationwide, between one-quarter and one-half are referred to a mental health treatment provider for a co-occurring mental disorder.[ii] Unless drug courts begin to properly 
address the mental health of the participants, they will not be resolving all underlying problems that led to criminal justice involvement for people with co-occurring disorders. Continue reading “Addressing Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders in Treatment Courts”
If I’m home at 9:00 a.m. on a weekday, the television is most likely tuned to Judge Mathis. Greg Mathis is humorous, but a no-nonsense judge who oversees small claims cases in Chicago. Don’t tell any lawyer, but I feel like I’ve earned an honorary law degree after watching this show for many years. For many people, television is their only knowledge of the court system. Although entertaining, these shows aren’t an accurate representation of real courtroom proceedings. To learn more about the operations of a court, a treatment court specifically, I visited a docket in a Mid-Atlantic state. Here is what I learned.
“For the veteran, thank you for bravely doing what you’re called to do so we can safely do what we’re free to do.” – Unknown
This month as we celebrate our veterans, we take a moment as a nation to thank the soldiers for their service of ensuring our freedom and safety. We would also like to acknowledge and thank those who continue to support our veterans once they return home.
Our first shout out goes to the Veterans Affairs (VA). Veterans emerging back into civilian life may face several challenges, such as PTSD and substance misuse. VA’s National Center for PTSD created a series of short videos for patients and providers to help recognize the symptoms of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). Continue reading “Sending Support for Our Soldiers”
With the start of the federal fiscal year on October 1, National Drug Court Resource Center (NDCRC) staff are hard at work preparing for the third year of our project. We have a number of exciting activities planned for the coming year. Some of these activities will build on the successes of the past two years while others will be entirely new.
Addiction is both a personal health crisis and a public health concern; it wreaks havoc on individual lives and can damage entire communities. The opioid crisis, for example, has led to the deaths of thousands of people, devastated families, and left cities and towns struggling financially from the loss of a workforce. How we understand addiction, therefore, has significant policy implications. The trouble is, addiction is difficult to treat, relapse is common, and there is no scientific rule to explain why any given drinker, user of prescription drugs, or recreational marijuana user becomes dependent or addicted.
Continue reading “The Dangerous Oversimplification of Addiction”
My role at the Justice Programs Office (JPO) is to be heard but rarely seen. I am not asked to go to conferences and present on the constitutional right to counsel. I am certainly not going out into the field to provide training and technical assistance to adult and juvenile treatment courts. But you have probably seen my Friday News Roundup or read my social media posts. I liken my role at JPO to a spotlight. I use my writing abilities and communications knowledge to shine a light on the fantastic work that JPO does and on the talented people that work here.
This is the second blog post in a two-part series on researcher-practitioner partnerships by JPO’s Associate Director of Research, Dr. Julie Baldwin. Part one focused on obstacles to researcher-practitioner partnerships. Continue reading “Characteristics of Robust RPPs and How We Can Promote Their Development”
This is the first in a two-part series on researcher-practitioner partnerships by JPO’s Associate Director of Research, Dr. Julie Baldwin. Part two will focus on the characteristics of robust researcher-practitioner partnerships and how we can promote their development.
Addiction is complex. Addiction treatment is even more so. John Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight, provides an intriguing glimpse into some of the complexities of this industry during his May 20, 2018, episode.[1] I recently watched the episode, and even as someone whose work over the past five years has centered on drug treatment courts (including drug treatment), I was shocked. I found it hard to believe that the $34 billion treatment industry, an industry that includes over 14,500 drug treatment facilities in the United States, is effectively unregulated at the federal level with “no federal standards for counseling practices or rehab programs.”
Continue reading “The Wild, Wild West of Addiction Treatment”