Veterans 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.

Maricopa County will use the grant funds to enhance their drug court program by developing a network of treatment and recovery support providers to work specifically with veterans. This will be accomplished by collaborating with the Veterans Administration, developing a veteran's entry criteria tool for use at the pre-sentence stage, and increasing community supervision. The county has seen a 75 percent increase in veterans referred to the drug court in the past 18 months. This enhancement will allow an ongoing caseload of 50 participants to be served and supervised in the veterans specialized track program.

CA/NCF