Treatment courts, such as drug courts and veterans treatment courts, transform the justice system’s response to substance use and mental health disorders by offering an evidence-based alternative to incarceration.
What is a treatment court?
Do treatment courts work?
Who do treatment courts serve?
Programmatic Request
Help state and local leaders rebuild and increase their capacity to address the growing substance use disorder crisis.
Below you will find NADCP's FY 2024 funding request, along with supporting materials. For questions, please contact NADCP's legislative affairs team.
By addressing the underlying cause, treatment courts reduce crime by up to 58 percent.
Treatment courts save considerable money for taxpayers. They produce benefits of $6,208 per participant, returning up to $27 for every $1 invested.
Treatment courts refer more people to treatment than any other intervention in America, and those people are more successful in recovery because they remain in treatment long enough. The average national completion rate for treatment courts is nearly 60%, approximately two-thirds higher than probation and more than twice the rate of probationers with substance use disorders.
Treatment courts save lives every single day. They improve education, employment, housing, and financial stability; promote family reunification; reduce foster care placements; and increase the rate of mothers with substance use disorders delivering drug-free babies.
The principles of treatment courts have given rise to other incarceration alternatives, diversion programs, and sentencing reforms. In this way, they are the foundation of the current justice system reform movement in the U.S.
Treatment Courts Set the Standard
NADCP’s Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards are the blueprint on which successful adult drug courts are built. Rooted in more than 25 years of empirical study of addiction, pharmacology, behavioral health, and criminal justice, the standards address the most critical aspects of adult drug court and provide an evidence-based guide for how programs should operate to ensure success.
Treatment Courts and Medication for Opioid Use Disorder
Treatment court participants are far more likely to receive medication to treat addiction while in the program than through traditional probation or treatment, giving a vulnerable population critical access to lifesaving medications as the country fights an ongoing opioid epidemic.