NCJ Number
203690
Date Published
2001
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper presents and provides commentary on American Bar Association Standard 2.77, which specifies procedures for drug treatment courts.
Abstract
The standard recognizes that drug treatment courts feature a nontraditional, nonadversarial approach; however, the standard is intended to ensure that participants' constitutional due process rights are respected during the course of all proceedings. In some cases, individuals are required to waiver rights in order to participate in the court procedures. The court must ensure that all such waivers are knowingly, freely, and voluntarily made with the assistance of qualified counsel. The counsel must ensure that all such waivers of rights are made with full knowledge of all the possible consequences involved. The court must also ensure that when an individual may be subject to any form of sanction, that individual is afforded the right to adequate counsel at that proceeding. Further, it is the court's responsibility to ensure that resources are available for effective and timely treatment for those under the court's jurisdiction. The standard takes into account that drug treatment courts often maintain open or pending criminal charges to provide leverage to keep offenders in treatment. Treatment success is often enhanced by length of time in treatment; consequently, it would be counterproductive to penalize these courts by holding them to normal case-processing time standards. The standard suggests the creation of a specialized or inactive docket for these cases. 37 references