Drug courts provide supervised community treatment designed to divert drug-addicted offenders from the criminal justice system. The two principal types of drug court programs for adult offenders are pre-trial diversion drug courts for first-time drug offenders, and post-adjudicatory drug courts for non-violent offenders who typically have prior convictions.

• National research has shown that drug courts can reduce the future criminal activities of offenders.
• Effective drug court programs can help reduce prison admissions and state costs.
• Over a three-year follow-up period, offenders who successfully completed post-adjudicatory drug courts in Florida were 80% less likely to go to prison than the matched comparison group.
• While drug court graduates have lower recidivism rates, only half of post-adjudicatory drug court participants complete the program, and many non-completers are sentenced to prison.

Two issues-program eligibility limitations and low completion rates-must be addressed if drug courts are expanded to reduce prison admissions.