Halifax County Drug Court is an Adult Drug Treatment Court for Circuit Court that integrates evidence-based services into a specialty docket to address substance abuse addiction with offenders.

Halifax County, a rural community in south central Virginia, has a huge substance use problem with limited treatment resources.  Halifax County Drug Court (HCDC), which provides services to  Circuit Court, was approved to operate by the Virginia Drug Court Advisory Committee on April 30, 2015 and a Planning Team attended Planning Initiative Training with NDCI May 4-6, 2015.  The program received its first placement July 2016. HCDC was the recipient of a BJA Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Award # 2016-DC-BX-0037 effective October 1, 2016 which ended Seeptember 30, 2020. As of April 01, 2021, 30 participants have entered into the Halifax County Drug Court with 6 graduates. 

HCDC is requesting federal funding in the amount of $500,000 to operate an Adult Drug Treatment Court for a 4-year period, beginning October 1, 2021.  HCDC operates consistent with Virginia judiciary support and based on Adult Drug Court 10 Key Components and Evidence-Based Program Principles, including:  Target Population (pgs. 5-8); Historically Discriminated Against Groups (pg. 60); Roles and Responsibilities of the Judge (pg. 20-24); Incentives, Sanctions, and Therapeutic Adjustments ( pgs. 26-33); Substance Use Disorder Treatment (pgs. 38-46); Complementary Treatment and Social Services (pgs. 15-18); Drug and Alcohol Testing  (pg. 26-34); Multidisciplinary Team (pgs. 38-47); Census and Caseloads (pg. 51-56);and Monitoring and Evaluation (pg. 59-71).  Evidence-based treatment and supervision, integrated with drug testing, use of sanctions and incentives, and judicially supervised court dockets, will address substance use reduction. HCDC targets non-violent, adult male and female offenders’ post-adjudication, who have been sentenced to incarceration of 6 months or more, determined to be clinically addicted, and have high criminogenic risk levels and treatment needs as evidenced by the Risk and Needs Triage utilized by Drug Court Staff. No eligible client will be denied entry into Drug Court due to use of FDA-approved Medication Assisted Treatment. Participants will complete Drug Court within 12 to 24 months. Placements in Drug Court will continue to be expedited, with approximately 20 participants being placed the first year, and no more than 25 each year thereafter – maximum of 100 over the life of the grant.

Virginia Supreme Court Database System and the Performance Measurement Tool are utilized to report in-program progress.  Post-program recidivism data will be collected within 15 months following program completion.  Halifax County is not an Empowerment Zone or Renewal Community by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.  This jurisdiction is not leveraging any other federal funding to support Drug Court.