Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/EmilySack

The Brooklyn Treatment Court (BTC) began in 1996 as a pilot demonstration project at The King’s County Supreme Court (NY) to test the feasibility and effectiveness of reducing drug use and crime by linking drug-addicted defendants in drug felony cases to drug treatment and support services, under the close supervision of the court. The results of the evaluation indicate that BTC provided substantial drug treatment and supervision for severely addicted women facing drug felony charges and that the program resulted in significant improvements in the level of drug use and re-offending among program participants. Using high professional standards for drug treatment in general, and drug courts in particular, BTC’s implementation of the model and provision of treatment was outstanding.

This report presents the objectives related to addressing substance abuse problems of offenders by (1) establishing a network of justice, treatment, health, social services, and other providers and (2) identifying and providing treatment and support services for nonviolent, substance-abusing female offenders arrested in two of the five prosecutorial zones in Brooklyn, New York. The strategies adopted for attaining these objectives and a summary of progress toward them are also presented. Included are a description of the network model developed for the study and an overview of the work of the criminal justice agencies and treatment providers that deal with substance abusing offenders.

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