Success Through Addiction Recovery (STAR) Drug Court

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 Harris County Administrative Office of the District Courts will use this grant to enhance the services of the Success Through Addiction Recovery (STAR) Drug Court. The goal of STAR is to reduce the costs associated with incarceration and recidivism by providing chemical dependency treatment programs to the most severely dependent of eligible repeat drug offenders and probationers. Harris County will use the requested funds to: improve the quality of recovery support services by providing short-term transitional housing to clients who have no stable living environment, subsidizing public transportation for clients who lack access to reliable transportation, and providing psychotherapy sessions to clients facing mental health crises related to grief, trauma, and other therapy needs not covered by local mental health programs; improve the quality of court services by modifying the sanctions matrix to include research-based structured, therapeutic journaling curricula; and conduct a two year process and outcome evaluation of STAR Court by a qualified evaluator. CA/NCF