Drug Courts

The Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP) has supported the development of drug courts in California since 1998.  In alliance with 53 drug courts located throughout the State, ADP is committed to the concept that alcohol and drug services and treatment are preferable to incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders.

Some of ADP’s goals are to reduce drug usage and recidivism, provide court supervised treatment, combine treatment with other rehabilitation services for long-term care, and reduce child welfare.  

There are three types of drug courts:

• Adult Drug Courts focuses on adult offenders.
• Juvenile Drug Courts focuses on delinquency matters that involve substance-using juveniles by providing immediate and intensive intervention with continuous court supervision.
• Dependency Drug Courts focuses on cases involving parental rights which an adult is the party litigant, which includes a substance abuse charge against a parent.  

As of December 2006, there were 203 drug courts within the 58 counties in the California.