SAMHSA Treatment Drug Courts

Grants to Expand Substance Abuse Treatment Capacity In Adult and Family Drug Courts (Short Title: SAMHSA Treatment Drug Courts) - The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2012 Grants to Expand Substance Abuse Treatment in Adult and Family Drug Courts. The purpose of this program is to expand and/or enhance substance abuse treatment services in existing adult and family “problem solving” courts which use the treatment drug court model in order to provide alcohol and drug treatment (including recovery support services supporting substance abuse treatment, screening, assessment, case management, and program coordination) to defendants/offenders.

Grantees will be expected to provide a coordinated, multi-system approach designed to combine the sanctioning power of treatment drug courts with effective treatment services to break the cycle of criminal behavior, alcohol and/or drug use, and incarceration or other penalties. Priority for the use of the funding should be given to addressing gaps in the continuum of treatment for those individuals in these courts who have substance abuse and/or co-occurring disorders treatment needs.

Grant funds must be used to serve people diagnosed with a substance use disorder as their primary condition. The term “drug court” means a specially designed court calendar or docket, the purposes of which are to achieve a reduction in recidivism and substance abuse among substance-abusing offenders and to increase the likelihood of successful habilitation through early, continuous, and intense judicially supervised treatment, mandatory periodic drug testing, and use of appropriate sanctions and other habilitation services. They are being created at a high rate with over 2,400 in existence in 2011, but many lack sufficient funding for substance abuse treatment.

Treatment Drug Courts represent the coordinated efforts of the judiciary, prosecution, defense bar, probation, law enforcement, mental health, social service, and treatment communities to actively intervene and break the cycle of substance abuse, addiction and crime. Stakeholders work together to give individual clients the opportunity to improve their lives, including recovery from substance use disorders, and develop the capacity and skills to become fully-functioning parents, employees and citizens. SAMHSA’s interest is to actively support and shape various existing Treatment Drug Courts that serve substance-abusing adults in the respective problem-solving court models as long as the court meets all the elements required for drug courts. The intent is to meet the clinical needs of clients and ensure clients are treated using evidence-based practices consistent with the disease model and the problem-solving model, rather than with the traditional court case-processing model. Current Closing Date for Applications: June 21, 2012.

Joint Adult Drug Court Solicitation to Enhance Services, Coordination, and Treatment FY 2012 Competitive Grant Announcement

Joint Adult Drug Court Solicitation to Enhance Services, Coordination, and Treatment FY 2012 Competitive Grant Announcement – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), are pleased to announce that they are seeking applications for funding for enhancing drug court services, coordination, and substance abuse treatment and recovery support services. This program furthers the missions of DOJ and HHS by providing resources to state, local, and tribal governments and state, local, and tribal courts to enhance drug court programs and systems for nonviolent substance-abusing offenders. Applicants must register with Grants.gov prior to submitting an application. All applications are due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on May 24, 2012.

For technical assistance with submitting the application, contact the Grants.gov Customer Support Hotline at 1–800–518–4726 or 606–545–5035 or via e-mail to support@grants.gov.

FY 2012 Family Drug Court Programs

FY 2012 Family Drug Court Programs – The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will award funding to enhance the capacity of family drug courts. The Family Drug Courts program builds the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to either implement new drug courts or enhance pre-existing drug courts for individuals with substance abuse disorders or substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders, including histories of trauma, who are involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse, neglect, and other parenting issues. Applicants must provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents. This program provides seed money, not long-term support. OJJDP expects successful applicants to develop and implement a sustainability plan during the grant period to continue operation of the family drug court when the grant ends. The deadline to apply for funding under this announcement is 11:59 p.m. eastern time on April 23, 2012.

OJJDP FY 2012 Juvenile Drug Courts/Reclaiming Futures

OJJDP FY 2012 Juvenile Drug Courts/Reclaiming Futures – OJJDP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are collaborating to enhance the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop and establish juvenile drug courts conjointly with the Reclaiming Futures program model to serve substance abusing juvenile offenders. This solicitation invites communities to propose the implementation of a juvenile drug court program, using best practices in substance abuse treatment, along with the Reclaiming Futures program model. Applicants are limited to states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments, acting directly or through agreement with other public or private entities. Applicants must implement a juvenile drug court program integrated with the Reclaiming Futures model, which is described at www.reclaimingfutures.org. Current Closing Date for Applications: May 16, 2012.

OJJDP FY 2012 Family Drug Court Programs

OJJDP FY 2012 Family Drug Court Programs – The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will award funding to enhance the capacity of family drug courts. The Family Drug Courts program builds the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to either implement new drug courts or enhance pre-existing drug courts for individuals with substance abuse disorders or substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders, including histories of trauma, who are involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse, neglect, and other parenting issues. Applicants must provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents. This program provides seed money, not long-term support. OJJDP expects successful applicants to develop and implement a sustainability plan during the grant period to continue operation of the family drug court when the grant ends.  Current Closing Date for Applications: April 23, 2012.

Drug Free Communities Support Program

Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Drug Free Communities Support Program – The Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) are accepting applications for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Drug Free Communities Support Program (DFC) grants. The purpose of the DFC Program is to establish and strengthen collaboration to support the efforts of community coalitions working to prevent and reduce substance use among youth. Applications are due by March 22, 2012.

DFC is a collaborative initiative, sponsored by ONDCP, in partnership with SAMHSA, which works to achieve two goals:

• Establish and strengthen collaboration among communities, public and private non-profit agencies, and Federal, State, local, and tribal governments to support the efforts of community coalitions working to prevent and reduce substance use among youth. For the purposes of this RFA, “youth” is defined as individuals 18 years of age and younger.
• Reduce substance use among youth and, over time, reduce substance abuse among adults by addressing the factors in a community that increase the risk of substance abuse and promoting the factors that minimize the risk of substance abuse.

DFC grantees are required to work toward these two goals as the primary focus of their Federally-funded effort.

The DFC Program was created by the Drug Free Communities Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-20), reauthorized through the Drug Free Communities Reauthorization Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-82), and reauthorized again through the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-469). The latest reauthorization extended the program for an additional five years until 2012. This announcement addresses Healthy People 2020 Substance Abuse Topic Area HP 2020-SA.

Since 1998, ONDCP has awarded approximately 2,000 DFC grants, with up to 30 new awards expected in FY 2012. Grants have been awarded to communities from every region in the nation including rural, urban, suburban, and tribal communities. Additional grantee information is available on the DFC website at http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/Drug-Free-Communities-Support-Program.

BJA FY 2012 Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program

BJA FY 2012 Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program – BJA is accepting applications for FY 2012 grants to establish new drug courts or enhance existing drug court services, coordination, and offender management and recovery support services. The purpose of the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program (42 U.S.C. 3797u et seq.) is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop and implement drug courts that effectively integrate evidenced-based substance abuse treatment, mandatory drug testing, sanctions and incentives, and transitional services in a judicially supervised court setting with jurisdiction over substance-abusing offenders. Current Closing Date for Applications: March 08, 2012.

For Category 1: Implementation and Category 2: Enhancement, applicants are limited to states, state and local courts, counties, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments (as determined by the Secretary of the Interior). For Category 3: Statewide, applicants are limited to state agencies such as the State Administering Agency (SAA), the Administrative Office of the Court, and the state Alcohol and Substance Abuse Agency. Note: Applicants must demonstrate that eligible drug court participants promptly enter the drug court program following a determination of their eligibility. A required initial period of incarceration will be grounds for disqualification unless the period of incarceration is mandated by statute for the offense in question. In such instances, the applicant must demonstrate the offender is receiving treatment services while incarcerated if available and begins drug court treatment services immediately upon release.

New study finds drug courts reduce substance abuse and crime

Researchers at the Urban Institute, the Center for Court Innovation, and RTI International have recently completed perhaps the most ambitious study of drug courts to date. Funded by the National Institute of Justice, the five-year multi-site study compared participants in 23 drug courts in seven states to similar defendants who went through conventional case processing. The results offer vivid evidence that drug courts are effective at reducing both substance abuse and crime.

Among other findings, the study documented that drug court participants were one-third less likely to report using drugs 18 months after their enrollment in the program. And they were responsible for less than half as many criminal acts as the comparison group after 18 months. Largely because of these reductions in criminal behavior, drug courts ended up saving an estimated $5,680 per participant—cost savings that closely resemble those found in previous studies in California and Washington State.

In examining why drug courts have succeeded, the evaluation focused in particular on the role of the judge and the value of procedural fairness. The fact that drug court participants generally had more favorable perceptions of the judge than the comparison group was among the most important factors explaining why drug courts reduced drug use and crime.

Below are the links to the report.

Executive Summary (Pre-Production)
By Shelli B. Rossman, John K. Roman, Janine M. Zweig, Michael Rempel, and Christine H. Lindquist
The Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE) tested whether drug courts reduce drug use, crime, and associated problems; assessed how drug courts work and for whom; examined how changes in participant attitudes and perceptions explain effectiveness; and analyzed cost savings. The executive summary presents all major findings.

Volume 1: Study Overview and Design (Pre-Production)
By Shelli B. Rossman, John K. Roman, Janine M. Zweig, Christine H. Lindquist, Michael Rempel, Janeen Buck Willison, P. Mitchell Downey, and Kristine Fahrney
Volume 1 provides information about the study’s context and objectives; a review of the literature; a description of the research design; and a baseline profile of the 1,781 study offenders, drawn from 23 drug court and six comparison sites. Volume 1 also provides lessons learned in recruiting and retaining justice-involved offenders in longitudinal survey research.

Volume 2: What’s Happening with Drug Courts? A Portrait of Adult Drug Courts in 2004 (Pre-Production)
By Janine M. Zweig, Shelli B. Rossman, and John K. Roman
Volume 2 provides information about eligibility criteria, screening and assessment protocols, program volume, and court supervision and treatment policies for 380 adult drug courts surveyed in 2004.

Volume 3: The Drug Court Experience (Pre-Production)
By Shelli B. Rossman, Janine M. Zweig, Dana Kralstein, Kelli Henry, Christine H. Lindquist, and P. Mitchell Downey
Volume 3 provides information about the program experiences of participants in the 23 drug courts from the longitudinal evaluation. These experiences span judicial status hearings, drug testing, case management, sanctions, incentives, and treatment. Volume 3 also analyzes the relationship of key participant perceptions (procedural justice, perceived severity of sentence for program failure, and threat of sanctions) with compliance, criminal behavior and drug use at follow-up.

Volume 4: The Impact of Drug Courts (Pre-Production)
By Shelli B. Rossman, Michael Rempel, John K. Roman, Janine M. Zweig, Christine H. Lindquist, Mia Green, P. Mitchell Downey, Jennifer Yahner, Avinash S. Bhati, and Donald J. Farole, Jr.
Volume 4 provides findings from the impact evaluation, answering “do drug courts work”, “for whom do drug courts work,” and “what are the mechanisms by which drug courts work,” as well as providing findings from the cost-benefit study. Volume 4 also describes the study’s rigorous “super weighting” methodology as well as the implications of its findings for policy, practice, and future research.

Review of NIJ’s Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation
By Michael Rempel
A powerpoint presentation highlighting the major findings of the study regarding whether, for whom, and how adult drug courts produce positive

Tribal Wellness Courts Enhancement Training

Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts Enhancement Training – The Tribal Law and Policy Institute is pleased to announce that it is holding a Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts Enhancement Training. Offered in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Institute will conduct this three day enhancement training session to provide assistance for tribes with Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts. The Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts Enhancement Training session will be held September 19 — 21, 2011, at the Renaissance Palm Springs Hotel (formerly the Wyndham Hotel) on the Agua Caliente reservation in Palm Springs, California.

The revised and updated “Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: The Key Components” (forthcoming) resource publication will be utilized as the framework resource for this training. Tribal court personnel, tribal leaders, tribal law enforcement, tribal corrections, tribal probation and pretrial services, tribal treatment providers, and others involved in the implementation or enhancement of Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts are invited to attend this comprehensive training, as well as Tribal Wellness Court Teams who’s Tribal Wellness Court is in the Planning or Renewal Stage. If you are a BJA grantee, you are authorized by the Bureau of Justice Assistance to use your grant funds to attend this training. There is no Registration Fee to attend the Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts Enhancement Training.

BJA FY 2011 Improving Criminal Courts Solicitation

BJA FY 2011 Improving Criminal Courts Solicitation – This FY 2011 grant announcement focuses on national, state, local, and tribal initiatives to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system, in particular -

• to provide training and technical assistance to problem-solving courts;
• support prosecutors seeking to implement innovative strategies to become high-performing organizations;
• assist criminal courts at the state and local levels to improve the capacity, efficiency, and quality of the judicial system’s ability to respond to increases in volume and/or complexity of criminal caseloads;
• provide national support to states reforming indigent defense systems;
• and support state and local jurisdictions develop and implement a comprehensive evidence-based approach to pretrial justice.

This program is funded under the Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program (Byrne Competitive Program), the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program, and the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program. The Byrne Competitive Program helps communities improve the functioning and capacity of state and local criminal justice systems and provides for national support efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address local needs.

Funds may not be used for the acquisition of land, construction projects, or security enhancements or equipment to non-governmental entities not engaged in law enforcement, law enforcement support, criminal or juvenile justice, or delinquency prevention. The JAG Program is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions, and JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system. The JAG Program also authorizes a 3 percent set-aside for training and technical assistance.

The Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop and implement drug courts that effectively integrate evidenced-based substance abuse treatment, mandatory drug testing, sanctions and incentives, and transitional services in a judicially supervised court setting with jurisdiction over substance-abusing offenders. Current Closing Date for Applications: July 08, 2011.