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SAMHSA Radio News Line

Drug Courts Help Incarcerated Individuals with Substance-Use Disorders Find Treatment

Posted: July 16th, 2006, 5:00pm PDT

Enclosure: [download]

(BEARD OPEN):
A report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration--SAMHSA--shows that, in a recent one-year period, the criminal-justice system was the principal source of referral for 36-percent of all substance-abuse-treatment admissions at publicly funded treatment centers. Many of those referrals came from "drug courts"--specialized courts that address cases involving individuals who have a substance-use disorder, and have committed a crime. Doctor H- Westley Clark--director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment--talks about why drug courts are a better alternative to incarceration...

(CLARK):
"Drug-treatment courts are a successful alternative to incarceration, because they focus on the principal problem that is associated with the person's being before the court in the first place--and that's drugs, and sometimes drugs and alcohol. So, the issue is that you have a judge who's knowledgeable about substance-use disorders--and you have the kind of crime that's so intimately tied to a substance-use disorder that you can't separate them. And, what the judge is able to do is to offer a reasonable strategy for the person who has broken the law while he's under the influence--or broken the law associated with substance-use disorders. And so, they get to make a choice--with the judge facilitating that."

(BEARD CLOSE):
Experts say that--not only do drug courts help those with alcohol- or drug-use disorders get the treatment services they need--they also save money: A report from National Association of Drug Court Professionals shows that--for every dollar invested in drug courts--10 dollars are saved by the corrections system. For more information about drug courts and related treatment services, visit www.samhsa.gov. For the "SAMHSA Newsline", I'm Bill Beard.

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