NCJ Number
150219
Date Published
1993
Length
0 pages
Annotation
Using segments from various local and national television news casts and magazine shows, this video profiles the Miami Drug Court, which is designed to divert nonviolent first-time drug offenders from imprisonment to a court-monitored drug treatment program.
Abstract
The program and its effects are described through portrayals of actual court sessions, narrator information about the program, and interviews with the court's judge, Stanley Goldstein, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and clients. The court and the judge preside over a three-phase program that includes acupuncture, detoxification, counseling, and academic and vocational education. The program includes the regular monitoring of drug use through urinalysis. Before clients can move from phase one to phase two of treatment they must be drug free through seven consecutive drug tests. Clients periodically reappear in court for an assessment of treatment progress by the judge. Those who have a pattern of noncompliance with the treatment regimen may be given a 2-week period in jail. The key figure in the program is the judge, who assumes the roles of coach, motivator, teacher, parent, and disciplinarian. Treatment for each client lasts a minimum of 1 year. Those who have completed the program have a significantly lower rearrest record than similar offenders who receive traditional jail time. The cost of the program is approximately $700 a year per client, the cost of approximately 9 days in jail. One of the major problems of the Drug Court is lack of State and Federal funding, since current political priorities in the "War on Drugs" focus on punishment and imprisonment rather than treatment and prevention. Consequently, the program struggles to maintain its current level of case processing, without much hope that it can reach significantly more who need the program.