Continuum of Criminal Justice Responses to Drug-Involved Offenders:Vision and Consensus

The National Initiatives: Improving Criminal Courts Program is funded under the Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program (Byrne Competitive Program), the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program, and the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program. Authorized by Pub. L. No. 112-10, div. B, secs. 1101-1104 and (Pub. L. No. 111-117, 123 Stat. 3034, 3134, the Byrne Competitive Program, among other purposes, helps communities improve the functioning and capacity of state and local criminal justice systems and provides for national support efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address local needs.

The National Initiatives: Improving Criminal Courts Program, administered by the Office of Justice Programs' Bureau of Justice Assistance, helps improve criminal justice systems. This program supports funding for national, state, local, and tribal programs/efforts, such as training and technical assistance, to address the needs of state and local justice systems and communities. The FY 2011 program will focus on funding efforts in five major categories.

The National Judicial College will utilize their funds to develop a comprehensive vision and strategy that encourages a continuum of local justice system responses for drug-involved offenders, including problem-solving strategies. Specifically, the grantee will conduct the following activities: 1. Perform a literature review and identify existing models which most efficiently and effectively respond to drug-involved offenders; 2. Hold two in-person meetings and several web-based meetings of the steering committee as well as relevant policymakers and practitioners of the criminal justice community to build consensus and to create a systemic process for managing drug-involved offenders; 3. Write a monograph, detailing the continuum that emerges from the meetings defined in the second activity; 4. Prepare a printable graphic depiction and an internet-based interface of the continuum and; 5. Hold two web-based sessions to educate policymakers and practitioners on how to use the continuum documents and implement changes in their own jurisdictions. CA/NCF