- English
- Español
Drug Treatment Courts in the Americas (DTC)
Highlights
Port-of-Spain, September 11 — The Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the OAS signed a cooperation agreement and launched a pilot DTC, the first one of the CICAD-sponsored program.
Recent events
BARBADOS - June 19-20, 2012. At the request of the Attorney
General of Barbados, the OAS (through ES-CICAD) and the National Council on
Substance Abuse or Barbados (NADS) carried out a workshop to discuss the
feasibility of the Drug Treatment Court model in Barbados. Experts from
countries where this model is already working (Canada, the US, and
Jamaica) attended this workshop.
Read more:
Activities
CICAD and American University
agree to continue collaborating on the Drug Treatment Courts (DTC) model.
A new publication that sums up DTC experience in the Americas is in
preparation.
NASHVILLE During the NADCP Conference (with more than 4,000
participants), the OAS brought together experts from eight member states
to work on the development of Drug Treatment Courts as a treatment
alternative to incarceration for drug dependent offenders.
Eight OAS Member States Reaffirm Commitment to Drug Court Treatment Model
Eighty professionals from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Panama attended U.S. conference for
practical training on setting up and managing drug treatment courts (DTCs).
OAS Trains Judges and Prosecutors in the Caribbean on Alternatives to Incarceration
Forty judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, treatment providers and other professions
from the Caribbean where trained in February in Canada.This activity was carried out with support from the Government of Canada.
CICAD Conducts Workshop on the Evaluation of Drug Treatment Courts
Researchers and professionals in the Justice and Health fields working
within the Drug Treatment Courts (DTC) model gathered from all over the
Americas to evaluate DTCs.
Treating Substance Abuse as an Alternative to Incarceration
Societies across the Americas are affected by the impact that drug abuse
bears on families, the workplace and even public security.
DTC at Work
Our Partners
Resources
Drug Treatment Courts in the Americas
Treatment alternatives to incarceration for drug-dependent offenders involve diverting substance-abusing offenders from prison and jail into treatment and rehabilitation under judicial supervision. By increasing direct supervision of offenders, coordinating public resources, and expediting case processing, treatment alternatives to incarceration can help break the cycle of criminal behavior, alcohol and drug use, and imprisonment. In various countries Drug Treatment Courts have proven to effectively reduce: (1) crime; (2) relapse into drug use; (3) the prison population; they are also cost-effective.
Drug dependency is a chronic, relapsing disease that must be dealt with as a core element of public health policy (see the new Drug Hemispheric Strategy of 2010). The OAS, through the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Secretariat for Multidimensional Security has been working to promote drug treatment courts and similar court-supervised treatment alternatives to incarceration in the Americas.
Through a three year program, the OAS is supporting countries interested in promoting and/or consolidating this modality in the Hemisphere.
updated on 2/22/2013 3:06:26 PM
