"With criminal justice reform now an issue for both the Republican and Democratic side of the 2016 presidential campaign, drug courts are increasingly being viewed as a viable alternative to mandatory jail time. The War on Drugs waged during the crack era of the 1980s and ’90s packed U.S. prisons with non-violent drug offenders, but many voters and policymakers have grown disillusioned with this solution, citing the high cost of incarceration and its devastating impact on inmates’ families and economic prospects.
“The goal is not to be just drug free, but to have a meaningful, viable life. And that means education and employment. Once they’re not using drugs, people want these opportunities,” Ferdinand told msnbc. The Brooklyn Treatment Court is one of approximately 3,000 drug courts in the country – a boomlet since the first was established in Miami in 1989...
Bill Piper, the director of national affairs for DPA, said “the thing about drug courts is they oftentimes focus heavily for nothing more than drug possession, oftentimes marijuana, picking who they will treat and won’t and it makes their success rate look really, really good.”
Detractors are also concerned about the extraordinary power given to the judges. “Judges play doctor and they get to decide how much treatment [criminal offenders] get,” argued Piper.
Jason Ziedenberg, the director of research and policy at JPI, said while drug courts may be appropriate for a small group of people, “more people should get diverted from the criminal justice system entirely and to the public health system instead as early on as possible.”
Still, in a telling sign of how swiftly and completely the conventional wisdom on Capitol Hill has shifted on this issue, both the DPA and JPI could not name a single national lawmaker who was outright against drug courts.http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amid-2016-election-drug-courts-get-closer-look
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