Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2003, $215,491)
The Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program is designed to assist states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments in developing and establishing drug courts for substance-abusing adult and juvenile offenders. Drug court programs funded by the Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program are required by law to target nonviolent offenders. The Program supports the following activities: Adult drug court implementation, Juvenile drug court implementation, Family drug court implementation, Single jurisdiction drug court enhancement, Statewide drug court enhancement, and planning efforts.
The Drug Court Enhancement Program that St. Louis will implement includes three initiatives designed to improve the outcomes for Drug Court clients in the 22nd Judicial Circuit's unified Drug Court system. These three initiatives include (1) a Treatment Improvement Project; (2) a Mentoring Project; and (3) a Health Screening and Referral Project.
The Treatment Improvement Project seeks to implement science-based treatment therapies within the treatment network of seven not-for-profit providers serving Drug Court participants in all three Drug Courts to improve the outcomes of clients. Two treatment technologies identified by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) as showing considerable promise, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), specifically the Matrix Model and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), will be transferred to local treatment agency staff by the Matrix Institute on Addictions. Training will be implemented in such a way as to ensure technology transfer to front line treatment workers assuring impact on Drug Court clients. Additionally, Drug Court team members will receive training in the MET philosophy and techniques
A Mentoring Project, designed specifically for Juvenile and Family Drug Court participants by the Family Resource Center (FRC), will be developed to increase the success rate for youth and families in Drug Court by building relationships that promote positive growth and behavior.
The third initiative is the Health Screening and Referral Project which will provide health screening and assessment, referral, and monitoring for clients identified as eligible for the Adult Felony Drug Court. Presently, a considerable proportion of clients admitted to Drug Court come with a range of infectious diseases, chronic illnesses, dental problems, and other medical conditions that result from poor access to primary health care. This project will seek to improve the drug treatment outcomes for all Drug Court clients by brokering medical/dental services for all Drug Court participants and offer health education classes. The project will also seek to offer smoking cessation programs to further reduce health problems and the incidence of drug use relapse.
CA/NCF