Drug courts

Drug courts are supervised judicial entities that specifically deal with nonviolent drug offenses. The purpose of these courts is to accommodate recovery and restoration of the offenders to make them productive members of society.

Assignment Guidelines

Address the following in 6–10 pages:

  • What are the specific goals of drug courts? Explain.
  • When is a person tried at a drug court? Explain.
  • Find a drug court in a municipality near you.
  • Are drug courts effective? Use research to support your response.
  • Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.
  • Content/60% (21 points each)
  • Organization/15% (21 points)
  • APA Formatting/10% (14 points)
  • Verbatim Text/5% (7 points)
  • Mechanics/10% (14 points)

Requirements: 6 – 10 pages

Here is the textbook to use for reference – Abadinsky, H. (2017). Drug Use and Abuse: A Comprehensive Introduction (9th Edition). Cengage Limited.

Answer preview

With the increasing incarceration rate of non-violent offenders in prison in the 1960s and 1970s, the court system thought it better to address this high number of people serving a long sentence and a high level of recidivism. Anestis, J& Carbonell (2014) outline that the first drug was established to address an increasing population of the offenders servicing the non-violent crimes and reducing the higher recidivism of the drug-related crimes. The first drug court was established in Miami, Miami Dade country in Florida, the US, in 1989. However, the drug court concept began in New York in the 1970s. The Florida legislature established this court intending to provide the pretrial substance abuse education and treatment intervention program to eligible non-violent felony offenders. The specific goal and objective of the drug court are to prevent the abuse of alcohol and other related drugs and related criminal activity. Secondly, it aims at promoting recovery via a coordinated response to offenders who depend on alcohol and other substances like addictive drugs (Abadinsky, 2017). In a broader view, the drug courts focused on addressing the drug-related crimes in an amicable and more effective manner other than punitive strategies engendered in the US laws. They aim to promote the recovery and restoration of non-violent offenders who are dependent on alcohol and other drugs.

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