Adult Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Program

The Bureau of Justice Assistance's (BJA) Adult Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Initiative supports the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program (42 U.S.C. 3797u et seq.), which assists communities to develop effective drug court strategies for nonviolent substance-abusing offenders. The primary purpose of the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program is to provide resources to state, local, and tribal governments and state and local courts to establish or enhance adult drug courts and systems for nonviolent substance-abusing offenders.

American University will implement the Adult Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Program (ADCDGP) to assist operational adult drug treatment court programs in the development and implementation of improved program practices for increased program effectiveness and long-term participant success. The project is designed to achieve these goals through the following strategies: (1) on-site services, including (a) site visits to ADCDGP grantees to assess the effectiveness of their programs in meeting their grant objectives and the degree to which they comply with the 'Key Components'; and (b) other on site technical assistance and training to support drug court program effectiveness in dealing with substance abusing offenders; (2) networking and information exchange mechanisms; and (3) preparing and disseminating a range of user-friendly resources to promote implementation of the 'key components' and culturally competent services that reflect best practices applied to all functions. These materials will focus on self-assessment tools drug courts can use to assess their operations, with particular focus on the 'key components' and relevant 'best practices.'

CA/NCF