Oklahoma Drug Court Statewide Expansion

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 Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services will use the statewide drug court enhancement grant funds to expand Oklahoma's drug courts statewide by increasing the current drug court's capacity, serving all eligible offenders, and enhancing the statewide drug court system through designated trainings. Oklahoma has designed an implementation approach to address the priorities of the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program. The first objective is to work toward taking drug courts to scale in Oklahoma and establish nine new drug courts. Some of the new drug courts will be attached to one another or attached to existing drug courts to form multi-county systems and others will operate as independent courts. New drug courts will be established in the counties of Adair, Kingfisher, Blaine, Choctaw, Pushmataha, Grant, Noble, Pawnee, Ellis, and Roger Mills, Canadian, and Texas. Expansion of existing drug courts so that all eligible offenders in a given jurisdiction can potentially become drug court participants. To determine the drug courts with the best opportunity to expand, consideration will be given to important factors such as county populations, prison commitments, political climate, and current funding levels. Grant funds will also be used to enhance the statewide drug court infrastructure through technical assistance and targeted training in order to create more buy-in from all of the states drug courts and to assist drug courts to produce improved outcomes. CA/NCF