In a drug court, there are immediate and direct consequences for all conduct. Sanctions follow violations and are applied as close to the time of failure as possible. This calls for frequent court hearings to monitor the offender and mete out sanctions. In many drug courts, less serious violations, such as inadequate participation in a court-ordered program, call for sanctions that start with the intensification of supervision, treatment, or a day's incarceration. Diversion and other Incentives.
Drug rehabilitation is at best a difficult, demanding, and lengthy process.
To motivate offenders to complete the process, drug courts offer them substantial positive incentives to do so. Encouragement, appreciation, and real incentives are given to participants for positive behaviors. Hybrid diversion programs that do not offer a complete dismissal, such as those offering to reduce felony convictions to misdemeanors, are common but provide less incentive for participants to succeed. Even where a diversion program is not available at all, significant incentives often are offered to offenders through the innovative application of probation terms, such as offering participants reductions in the length, intensity, or cost of probation supervision. Program Example A contingency contract sets out the standards of and consequences for offender conduct during the program.