Conclusion

Conclusion

Submitted by NDCRCadmin on July 7, 2010 – 1:27pm

The scientific evidence is overwhelming that adult drug courts reduce
crime, reduce substance abuse, improve family relationships, and
increase earning potential. In the process, they return net dollar
savings back to their communities that are at least two to three times
the initial investments. The optimal target population for drug courts
has been identified, and fidelity to several key ingredients of the drug
court model has been demonstrated to be necessary for favorable
results.

The challenge now is to extend the reach of adult drug courts without
diluting the intervention below effective levels. Any program can be
made cheaper simply by lowering the dosage or by providing fewer
services to more participants. The difficult task is to maintain
effectiveness in the process. Rather than drop essential components of
the drug court model, research indicates that the better course of
action is to standardize the best practices of drug courts so they can
be reliably implemented by a larger number of programs, each serving a
larger census of clients. This is the next great challenge for the drug
court field.