If the defendant successfully completes the program, usually 12 to 14 months in duration, the charge is dismissed with prejudice. If a defendant is not successful in completing the program, the judge reads the police report of the underlying incident and decides whether or not the defendant is guilty based solely on the report. Once a defendant is accepted into the Drug Court, the team's focus is on the participant's recovery, not the merits of the pending case. The role of the prosecuting attorney is to protect the public's safety by ensuring that the client complies with all program requirements and by participating in the court's coordinated strategy for responding to noncompliance. This nonadversarial role is significant because the court does not arbitrate in the usual fashion and instead has the opportunity to address addiction-related issues.
Few offenders enter the court's programs with rehabilitation on their minds.
They are in denial, and are there mostly to beat the system and avoid incarceration. The challenge is to keep them in the program until sobriety and attitudinal changes can occur. This may be difficult to accomplish, since the drug-using offender is often an expert at avoiding responsibility, making excuses for his or her failures and evading the court and its programs. In its place Drug Court Judges have installed a new, more pragmatic judicial intervention strategy. That strategy relies on the constant development of an ongoing, working relationship between the judge and the offender and the use of both positive and negative consequences to encourage compliance.