Gotham Gazette

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drug courts

drug courts

  • The Treatment Court Cottage Industry & Its Unintended Consequences

    rikers guards

    Guards at Rikers Island (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    So-called problem-solving courts are now firmly entrenched in the American criminal justice system. What started with the development of a few local community courts soon expanded to a dizzying array of specialty courts and the problem-solving court industrial complex. And the situation, though well-intentioned, has unintended consequences.

    Presently, across the country there are more than 4,000 community courts, domestic violence courts, fathering courts, youth courts, drug courts,

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