BJA Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program

The Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program is designed to assist states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments in developing and establishing drug courts for substance-abusing adult and juvenile offenders. Drug court programs funded by the Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program are required by law to target nonviolent offenders. The Program supports the following activities: Adult drug court implementation, Single jurisdiction drug court enhancement, Statewide drug court enhancement, and planning efforts.

The New York State Unified Court System will use grant funds to implement the New York State On-line Drug Court Training Program, an online web-based multi-media learning system available to new adult criminal drug court team members. This system is designed to train staff on drug treatment issues for the 7,498 substance abusing offenders within the state's drug court programs. The online system will not only fill a critical gap in drug court training for New York's drug treatment practitioners, but could serve as a model for other states seeking to implement similar systems. The goal of the program is to promote the long-term sustainability of drug courts in the state by providing education and training for new drug court practitioners joining an already operational adult criminal drug court.

The online learning program will train drug court team members who have recently been assigned to a drug court team. Video portions of the training program will also be available on CD-ROM, DVD, and VHS tape. The online website will include downloadable and streaming video presentations by national experts, peer panel discussions, a downloadable document section, on-line quizzes, a virtual tour of a drug court, and frequently asked questions.

CA/NCF