Drug Court Enhancement 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 county of Santa Barbara will use the drug court enhancement grant to improve and expand the drug court supervision for pre-plea felony offenders in the Substance Abuse Treatment Court (SATC). This project will address the following two needs: the need for increased supervision capacity that will correlate with the expanded target population as well as an increased treatment capacity; and the need for enhanced supervision of participants with co-occurring methamphetamine dependency and mental health disorders. Funds will be used for a full-time Deputy Probation Officer to provide increased services to the participants with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders. A target assignment for this officer will be no more than 50 participants in order to ensure that quality services can be provided. This officer will be providing direct service to the participants. Program objectives include a reduction in arrests and jail days and an increase in the proportion of participants who complete drug court from 48% to 58%. The goal of the program is to help SATC participants establish a clean and sober lifestyle, improve the quality of their lives, and to reduce episodes of criminality and psychiatric disorder.

CA/NCF