Summary The Polk County Drug Court has many apparent strengths. One of the main strengths of this program is the immediate access offenders have to the treatment team. The treatment team appears to have a strong, internal working relationship as well as good relationship with the judge. In addition, since the treatment provided is in-house, offenders have greater access to their counselors when needed. The recent acquisition of a new on-site drug testing machine allows for quick results for drug testing.
Several staff are cross-trained in counseling and drug testing which allows for more flexibility.
Having all services provided on the premises appears to promote continuity of care and communication. Finally, the strong working relationship with DOC appears to be of benefit to the drug court program. An issue that could be both a strength and a weakness is the use of in-house substance abuse treatment. While one staff member has been fired and one has been put on probation indicating the detection and addressing of problems, this evaluator is concerned that having in-house services may diminish quality control. For example, problems may be more difficult to detect because familiarity with the in-house system might lend itself to a more casual review of the services rendered to the offenders.