Expansion of Psychiatric Services in Adult Drug Treatment Courts

The purpose of the Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program (42 U.S.C. 3797u et seq.) is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop and implement drug treatment courts that effectively integrate substance abuse treatment, mandatory drug testing, sanctions and incentives, and transitional services in a judicially supervised court setting with jurisdiction over nonviolent, substance-abusing offenders. The FY 2010 Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program will provide grant funds to jurisdictions to implement or enhance a local drug court or to improve, enhance, expand, or financial support drug court services statewide.

The California Superior Court of Santa Clara County will use the grant funds to enhance adult drug court programs to assist non-violent offenders with successful rehabilitation from the use of drugs and/or alcohol. The intent of the drug courts enhancement will be to increase access to psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and follow-up appointments with a court psychiatrist by adding one day per week of the psychiatrist time designated to drug court clients. A minimum of 50 new clients will benefit from the proposed program. The proposed program will also pay for medications prescribed by the psychiatrist. This will be accomplished by a partnership with the Adult Criminal and Dependency Drug Treatment Courts and the Santa Clara County Department of Alcohol and Drug Services. CA/NCF