Criminal justice and the drug-abusing offender: policy issues of coerced treatment

Criminal justice populations, including arrestees, probationers, inmates and parolees, have become increasingly involved with drugs of abuse. These numbers have seriously impacted the criminal justice system from enforcement to the courts, corrections, and subsequent legal supervision agencies. Prevalence of substance abuse in these populations is reported, as well as the effectiveness of community-based and corrections-based treatment in effecting behavioral changes to reduce drug demand. The characteristics of successful intervention programs are described and an ideal model proposed for better integrating community treatment and criminal justice intervention efforts.