Without drug courts, this 30 percent would have been unsupervised, not monitored, and unless they happened to be unlucky enough to use drugs or commit a crime near a cop, they would still be on the streets abusing drugs and committing crime. Drug courts provide the oversight to make sure that does not happen. When they graduate from drug court programs they are clean and sober and more prepared to participate in society. In order to graduate from most drug courts, participants are required to finish high school or obtain a GED, hold down a job, keep up with financial obligations including drug court fees and child support payments. They are also required to have a sponsor who will keep them on track.
Drug courts work.
And that is not just my opinion. Drug courts are effective at taking offenders with little previous treatment history and keeping them in treatment. That may be why drug courts are getting results. Drug courts reduce recidivism. Thirteen percent of the graduates of that program were reconvicted for a felony, compared to 60 percent of non-graduates and 55 percent of the comparison group.