This second issue of the National Drug Court Resource Center’s Data Digest presents brief discussions and visual representations of trends in the number of operational treatment court programs, across the U.S., from 2014 through 2021.
The purpose of this Data Digest issue is to contextualize data and paint a more complete picture of the research and resources in the field, and each Data Digest issue focuses on one specific topic of interest to treatment court practitioners. This document provides breakdowns in the number of operational treatment court programs across the U.S.; it notes a 16% increase in the total number of treatment courts serving adults and juveniles, during that time period. Adult treatment court programs discussed in this document include: Adult Drug Court (ADC); DUI/DWI Court; Co-Occurring Disorder (COD) Court; Family Treatment Court (FTC); Mental Health Court (MHC); Opioid Court; Re-entry Drug Court; Tribal Healing to Wellness Court (THWC); and Veterans Treatment Court (VTC). Juvenile treatment court programs, unlike the adult programs, are reported to have decreased between 2014 and 2021. Juvenile programs discussed in this document include: Juvenile Drug Court (JDC); Juvenile Co-Occurring Disorders (JCOD) Court; Juvenile Mental Health Court (JMHC); and Juvenile Re-entry Drug Court, which are noted to have only two in operation at the end of 2021 and this type of court was not reported to be in operation in 2014 or 2019.