Stepping Outside the Box: Perceptions of Judges and Attorneys of the Drug Court

The drug treatment court (DTC) was developed as a response to the ineffectiveness of the traditional criminal justice response to addiction. In an effort to increase program retention and completion, a southeast Missouri DTC has implemented a conferencing program as a pilot project. The program utilizes family members, employers and community volunteers who engage the offender in a conferencing scenario in which the impact of the offenders' drug addiction is discussed. This paper is a qualitative study of the perceptions of the program held by the drug court judges and the prosecuting and defense attorneys.