Adult Treatment Court

An intermediate punishment that targets repeat offenders who have a substance use, mental health, or co-occurring disorder.

About

Adult Recovery Courts are an intermediate punishment that targets repeat offenders who have a substance use, mental health, or co-occurring disorder. Adult Treatment Court uses a team of court and community professionals to help ensure that offenders who are addicted to drugs and / or alcohol receive the intensive treatment they need to become healthy, law abiding, and productive family and community members. Adult treatment court works with non-violent, repeat offenders who are facing jail / prison time.

The goals of the adult treatment court program are:

  1. To reduce alcoholism and other drug dependencies among offenders;
  2. To reduce recidivism;
  3. To reduce the drug-related court workload;
  4. To increase the personal, familial, and societal accountability of offenders; and
  5. To promote effective interaction and use of resources among criminal justice personnel.

Eligibility

To be eligible to participate in the adult treatment court component of any local program, an individual must:

  1. Be either:
    • Diagnosed as chemically dependent under the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory III, or
    • Diagnosed as borderline chemically dependent under the Inventory and present documented collateral indicia of chemical dependency;
  2. Be assessed for legal eligibility (usually H and I felonies on the Structured Sentencing Grid);
  3. Be eligible for an intermediate punishment for all pending offenses; and
  4. Meet all other reasonable eligibility requirements established by the local program.

Existing Courts

In North Carolina, Adult Treatment Courts are operational in the following counties: