JMI Adult Drug Court Case Studies final report Dec 2003

This report provides profiles of three adult drug courts: Hennepin County Drug Court in Minneapolis, MN, the South County Drug Court in San Diego, CA, and the St. Mary Parish Drug in St. Mary Parish, LA, which represent different legal and socioeconomic milieus, local politics, and geography. The profiles highlight their efforts to institutionalize their drug courts, innovative aspects of their operations, the challenges they have faced. Specifically, the report: 1) identifies critical community linkages that are valuable in the institutionalization process; 2) highlights how to leveraged scarce resources; 3) shows how the heightened accountability and standards of drug court movement has raised the bar for performance for the judiciary in general; and 4) demonstrates how drug courts have increased the community’s trust and confidence in the judiciary and contributed to public safety.