Drug Treatment Court

Our Drug Treatment Programme provides drug counselling services to offenders in the Ministry of Justice’s Drug Court Programme.

Drug Treatment Court is a solution-focused, collaborative treatment alternative offered to drug dependent offenders who have been charged with any offence triable by a Resident Magistrate that has resulted in a significant burden on the justice system.

Rehabilitation is the core to this Offenders’ Programme which diverts drug-dependent offenders from the criminal justice system into a treatment programme aimed at empowering them to become responsible and productive citizens. This process adopts a therapeutic model of offender management, shifting the focus from the offences to the root causes of the offenders’ behaviour.

The programme is based on the principle of therapeutic jurisprudence and is designed to offer rehabilitation aimed at reducing recidivism, facilitating abstinence from the misused substance, and thereby promoting a substance misuse-free lifestyle.

The treatment programme requires frequent and random testing which increases the participants’ accountability through a series of sanctions and rewards managed by the Court.  Consequently, upon successful completion of this Programme, Clients will not have a criminal record.

Currently there are four (4) DTCs in operation; one in each parish of Kingston & St. Andrew, St. James, St. Thomas and  St. Catherine.