Key Component #1
Purpose: The mission of drug courts is to stop the abuse of alcohol and other drugs and related criminal activity. Drug courts promote recovery through a coordinated response to offenders dependent on alcohol and other drugs. Realization of these goals requires a team approach, including cooperation and collaboration of the judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, probation authorities, other corrections personnel, law enforcement, pretrial services agencies, TASC programs, evaluators, an array of local service providers, and the greater community.  Drug courts usually employ a multiphase treatment process, generally divided into a stabilization phase, an intensive treatment phase, and a transition phase. The stabilization phase may include a period of AOD detoxification, initial treatment assessment, education, and screening for other needs.

Key Component #2
Purpose: To facilitate an individual's progress in treatment, the prosecutor and defense counsel must shed their traditional adversarial courtroom relationship and work together as a team. Once a defendant is accepted into the drug court program, the team's focus is on the participant's recovery and law-abiding behavior--not on the merits of the pending case.

Key Component #3
Purpose: Arrest can be a traumatic event in a person's life. It creates an immediate crisis and can force substance abusing behavior into the open, making denial difficult. The period immediately after an arrest, or after apprehension for a probation violation, provides a critical window of opportunity for intervening and introducing the value of AOD treatment. Judicial action, taken promptly after arrest, capitalizes on the crisis nature of the arrest and booking process.

Key Component #4
Purpose: The origins and patterns of AOD problems are complex and unique to each individual. They are influenced by a variety of accumulated social and cultural experiences. If treatment for AOD is to be effective, it must also call on the resources of primary health and mental health care and make use of social and other support services.
   In a drug court, the treatment experience begins in the courtroom and continues through the participant's drug court involvement. In other words, drug court is a comprehensive therapeutic experience, only part of which takes place in a designated treatment setting. The treatment and criminal justice professionals are members of the therapeutic team.

Key Component #5
Purpose: Frequent court-ordered AOD testing is essential. An accurate testing program is the most objective and efficient way to establish a framework for accountability and to gauge each participant's progress. Modern technology offers highly reliable testing to determine if an individual has recently used specific drugs. Further, it is commonly recognized that alcohol use frequently contributes to relapse among individuals whose primary drug of choice is not alcohol.
    AOD testing results are objective measures of treatment effectiveness, as well as a source of important information for periodic review of treatment progress. AOD testing helps shape the ongoing interaction between the court and each participant. Timely and accurate test results promote frankness and honesty among all parties.
    AOD testing is central to the drug court's monitoring of participant compliance. It is both objective and cost-effective. It gives the participant immediate information about his or her own progress, making the participant active and involved in the treatment process rather than a passive recipient of services.

Key Component #6
Purpose: An established principle of AOD treatment is that addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition. A pattern of decreasing frequency of use before sustained abstinence from alcohol and other drugs is common. Becoming sober or drug free is a learning experience, and each relapse to AOD use may teach something about the recovery process.
   its unique position in the criminal justice system, a drug court is especially well suited to develop coalitions among private community-based organizations, public criminal justice agencies, and AOD treatment delivery systems. Forming such coalitions expands the continuum of services available to drug court participants and informs the community about drug court concepts.

Key Component #7
Purpose: The judge is the leader of the drug court team, linking participants to AOD treatment and to the criminal justice system. This active, supervising relationship, maintained throughout treatment, increases the likelihood that a participant will remain in treatment and improves the chances for sobriety and law-abiding behavior. Ongoing judicial supervision also communicates to participants--often for the first time--that someone in authority cares about them and is closely watching what they do.
Drug courts require judges to step beyond their traditionally independent and objective arbiter roles and develop new expertise. The structure of the drug court allows for early and frequent judicial intervention. A drug court judge must be prepared to encourage appropriate behavior and to discourage and penalize inappropriate behavior. A drug court judge is knowledgeable about treatment methods and their limitations. 

Key Component #8
Purpose: Fundamental to the effective operation of drug courts are coordinated management, monitoring, and evaluation systems. The design and operation of an effective drug court program result from thorough initial planning, clearly defined program goals, and inherent flexibility to make modifications as necessary.
   The goals of the program should be described concretely and in measurable terms to provide accountability to funding agencies and policymakers. And, since drug courts will increasingly be asked to demonstrate tangible outcomes and cost-effectiveness, it is critical that the drug court be designed with the ability to gather and manage information for monitoring daily activities, evaluating the quality of services provided, and producing longitudinal evaluations

Key Component #9
Purpose: Periodic education and training ensures that the drug court's goals and objectives, as well as policies and procedures, are understood not only by the drug court leaders and senior managers, but also by those indirectly involved in the program. Education and training programs also help maintain a high level of professionalism, provide a forum for solidifying relationships among criminal justice and AOD treatment personnel, and promote a spirit of commitment and collaboration.               

Key Component #10
Purpose: Because of its unique position in the criminal justice system, a drug court is especially well suited to develop coalitions among private community-based organizations, public criminal justice agencies, and AOD treatment delivery systems. Forming such coalitions expands the continuum of services available to drug court participants and informs the community about drug court concepts.

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