The judge often recommends the family comes to counseling with the clients and keeps a close eye on the living situation. He apologized once for not paying close enough attention to one client's living situation. As the evaluator told me, he had problems abusing his wife. He realized it was a bad situation and was either going to move into a halfway house or jail to avoid that. The judge recommended that he moved to jail because he had no transportation to the programs.
Family is an important issue through drug court.
Through the client rehabilitating, the client's family problems may disappear as well. Clients also have to make a change in the career or school world. Their offense may have cost them a job or caused them to get kicked out of school. The judged continuously encouraged one client to stay in the night class he enrolled in and arrange another time for his group meetings. Most clients in phase two are to be working.