Adult Drug Court and Veterans Treatment Court Planning, Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource Center Initiative

This proposal is submitted in response to BJA’s invitation to apply for FY23 Administrative Funding Adjustments to Previously Funded Awards under the Adult Drug Court Planning, Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource Center Initiative. The Center for Justice Innovation (Center) will continue providing a comprehensive cost-effective TTA services for statewide drug court systems; work with state-level drug court coordinators and other state leaders to improve drug court operations and coordination; and facilitate research study proposals that address research gaps in the drug court landscape. The service area is nationwide, and the primary beneficiaries are statewide grantees as well as the field at large. 

The Center will implement the following objectives:

Provide cost-effective TTA to statewide grantees and offer support to state drug court coordinators and other state agencies. The Center will meet the individualized TTA needs of statewide grantees and other jurisdictions, emphasizing TTA in statewide strategic planning, fidelity assessment, statewide training, evidence-based practices, capacity building, and data collection/evaluation.

Offer Veteran Treatment Courts strategic planning to four states. Center staff will conduct needs assessments and strategic planning workshops and will administer funding in passthrough awards to the states, to be used for activities to further their strategic goals.

Convene quarterly statewide drug court meetings. As it has done since 2015, the Center will host virtual and in-person quarterly meetings, as well as continue convening the coordinators monthly for special TA sessions.

Maintain and enhance the National Online Learning System for drug courts. The Center created the National Drug Court Online Learning System in 2012. Under this award, the Center will administer funding to an adult eLearning web developer to update the website.

Facilitate four research studies to produce practitioner-friendly publications and resources: Each study will provide BJA with information on what data courts and states should be collecting and how to support the collection of this data, with the goal of improving and enhancing future research and state evaluations and analyses of drug court operations.

Provide Comprehensive TTA to improve racial and ethnic disparities in drug courts. The Center will develop a bias indicator tool for treatment court practitioners and expand the use of the Racial and Ethnic Disparities Program Assessment Tool (developed by American University).