General Information

Drug Court is a community based probation program for felony offenders in Champaign County. Our participants have been found guilty of a felony offense and determined to have a substance dependency diagnosis. The Drug Court Team consists of the following individuals and agencies: the Judge, States Attorney, Public Defender, Probation, Prairie Center and TASC. It is the responsibility of this group to make decisions regarding the consequences, both positive and negative, for drug court participants.

The participants have admitted to having a substance abuse problem and state they want help to address this problem. They receive substance abuse treatment and have intense monitoring through the court and by probation. The average length of treatment for drug court participants is 15-18 months. During that time they are randomly drug tested and required to complete treatment, find employment and/or advance their education.

Drug court has proven to be an effective court sentence for those participants who are making a change to responsible living. Research has shown that a system of incentives and sanctions produces the best outcomes. Incentives have shown to increase success rates by up to 65%. This is where we hope you will help. We have used incentives to the extent that our budget allows, but that is minimal. We are looking for community support in the form of goods or money that will be a positive reinforcement for a recovering addict. We also use monetary donations to help our participants obtain medical, dental and other necessary services.

Drug Court is cost effective for our community. If the 95 graduates to date were instead sentenced to prison the cost would have been $21,500 per year. The average cost to the county for Drug Court treatment was $4,000. That is a total of $17,500 our community did not have to spend on each of the 95 graduates, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars over our 8 years of operation.

With nearly 1,600 drug courts in existence or being planned there is a great deal of bi-partisan interest in drug courts across the nation.

“Drug courts are an effective and cost efficient way to help non-violent drug offenders commit to a rigorous drug treatment program in lieu of prison.” George Bush - President of the United States

“Three quarters of the growth in the number of federal prison inmates is due to drug crimes. Building new prisons will go only so far. Drug courts and mandatory testing and treatment are effective. I have seen drug courts work. I know they… make a difference..” Williams Jefferson Clinton – former President of the United States

“The establishment of drug courts, coupled with [their] judicial leadership, constitutes one of the most monumental changes in social justice in the country since World War II.” General Barry McCaffrey (retired) – former Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy