Adult Drug Court Implementation

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 St. Mary's County rural drug court will incorporate the ten key components of a drug court into its standard operations and use the drug court implementation grant to fund staff salaries and drug court related training, and purchase supplies and treatment slots for drug court participants in need of care. The court will serve fifteen adults the first year, twenty the second, and twenty-five the third year of programming. In addition, the applicant predicts that approximately thirty percent of drug court participants will be diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Therefore, grant funding will support assessments, therapy, and continued medication management of drug court participants by professionals in the mental health field. The drug court will coordinate with the Maryland Judiciary, Office of Problem Solving Courts, for program evaluation purposes. The evaluation includes the thorough evaluation of process, outcome, and cost-benefit analysis.

CA/NCF