New Mexico Drug/Dwicourts Peer Review Process
New Mexico Drug/DWICourts Peer Review Process
Best Practices Table - SAMPLE:
The following table includes a list of the best practices related to New Mexico’s Drug Court Standards to include during your peer review process. Based on the online survey results, the items are marked as “yes” if the program has this practice and “no” if the program has not implemented this practice. Please note that for efficiency, this list includes most, but not all, of the Standards.Many of the Standards have one associated practice (one row or check box), but several standards are related to multiple practices (and show up in multiple rows of the table). The numbers in [brackets] are the Standard numbers, for easier cross-referencing. Please see the sample recommendations document for sample language for providing suggestions to the programs, as well as the report summary template for an outline of how to write up your findings. Feel free to take notes on a separate page as needed. Please leave a copy with the program at the end of the visit before leaving the site. If you conduct an exit interview or closing meeting with the team, copies can be made of the checklist to distribute to attendees.
Peer reviewer: Leave a copy of the completed checklist with program at end of visit
Program: This is a preliminary report of findings – full report to follow
Program Background:- Program began operation in ______.
- ______is the most common drug of choice among participants.
- The program has had ____ graduates and ____ terminations since inception.
- Currently, there are _____ active participants as of ______(Month/Year), with a reported capacity of ____ participants.
- This program accepts low/moderate/high risk participants.
- This program accepts low/high need participants.
- If more than one risk and/or need level, does the program have multiple tracks? Yes/No
“No” indicates that program reports not performing this practice.
“N/A” indicates that program did not respond to this question on the survey.
(*Please note that some practices may include footnotes)
Key Component #1: Drug courts integrate alcohol and other drug treatment services with justice system case processing
- Guiding Principle #5: Forge Agency, Organization and Community Partnership
1.1Program has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in place between the drug/DWI court team members (and/or the associated agencies) [1-11c, Appendix D, practice 2]
1.2MOU specifies team member roles [Appendix D, Practice 2]
1.3MOU specifies what information will be shared [Appendix D, Practice 2] / Yes
Yes
Yes
1.4Program has a written policy and procedure manual [1-12] / Yes
1.5All key team members attend pre-court staff meetings (judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, treatment, program coordinator, and probation) [1-7, 1-13] / Yes
1.6All key team members attend status hearings (judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, treatment, program coordinator, and probation) [1-7, 1-13] / Yes
1.7Law enforcement (e.g., police, sheriff) is a member of the drug/DWIcourt team [1-7] / No
1.8Law enforcement attends drug/DWIcourt pre-court staff meetings [1-7, 1-13] / No
1.9Law enforcement attends status hearings [1-17, 1-13] / No
1.10Treatment communicates with court via email [1-14] / Yes
Key Component #2: Using a non-adversarial approach, prosecution and defense counsel promote public safety while protecting participants’ due process rights / Performing this practice?
2.1A prosecuting attorney attends drug/DWIcourt pre-court staff meetings [1-7, 1-13, 2-1, 2-3] / Yes
2.2A prosecuting attorney attends status hearings [1-7, 1-13, 2-3] / Yes
2.3The defense attorney attends drug/DWIcourt pre-court staff meetings [1-7, 1-13, 2-3] / Yes
2.4The defense attorney attends status hearings [1-7, 1-13 2-3] / Yes
Key Component #3: Eligible participants are identified early and promptly placed in the drug court program.
- Guiding Principle #1: Determine the Population
2
3
3.1 The time between arrest and program entry is 50 days or less [3-11] / No
3.2Current program caseload/census (number of individuals actively participating at any one time) is less than 125 [3-14] / Yes
3.3The drug/DWIcourt allows other charges in addition to drug charges [3-1] / Yes
3.4The drug/DWIcourt accepts offenders with serious mental health diagnoses, as long as appropriate treatment is available[3-13] / Yes
3.5The drug/DWIcourt accepts offenders who are using medications to treat their substance use disorder[3-13] / Yes
3.6Program uses validated, standardized assessment tool(s) to determine eligibility[3-7] / No
3.7Participants are given a participant handbook upon entering the program [2-7] / No
Key Component #4: Drug courts provide access to a continuum of alcohol, drug and other treatment and rehabilitation services
- Guiding Principle #2: Perform a Clinical Assessment
- Guiding Principle #3: Develop the Treatment Plan
- Guiding Principle #8: Address Transportation Issues
4
4.1The drug/DWIcourt uses no more than two treatment agencies to provide treatment for a majority of participants or a single agency/individual provides oversight for any other treatment agencies treating drug/DWI court participants [4-5] / No
4.2The drug/DWIcourt requires participants to meet individually with a treatment provider or clinical case manager weekly in the first phase of the program [4-13] / Yes
4.3The drug/DWIcourt offers a continuum of care for substance abuse treatment (detoxification, outpatient, intensive outpatient, day treatment, residential) [4-4] / Yes
4.4Program uses validated, standardized assessment tool(s) to determine level or type of services needed [3-7] / No
4.5Treatment providers administer evidence-based, manualized behavioral or cognitive-behavioral treatments [4-11] / No
4.6The drug/DWIcourt offers or make referrals to gender specific services [4-6a] / No
4.7The drug/DWIcourt offers or make referrals to mental health treatment [4-6b] / Yes
4.8The drug/DWIcourt offers or make referrals to parenting classes[4-6c] / Yes
4.9The drug/DWIcourt offers or make referrals to family/domestic relations counseling [4-6d] / Yes
4.10The drug/DWIcourt offers or make referrals to health care [4-6f] / No
4.11The drug/DWIcourt offers or make referrals to dental care [4-6g] / No
4.12The drug/DWIcourt offers or make referrals to anger management classes [Appendix F-1, h] / Yes
4.13The drug/DWIcourt offers or make referrals to housing assistance [4-6h] / Yes
4.14The drug/DWIcourt offers trauma-related services [4-6i] / No
4.15The drug/DWIcourt offers a criminal thinking intervention [4-6j] / Yes
4.16The drug/DWIcourt provides relapse prevention services for all participants [4-10] / Yes
4.17The drug/DWIcourt provides referrals to services for participant's children / Yes
4.18The drug/DWIcourt provides childcare while participants are in treatment or in court (or participating in other drug/DWI court requirements) [Appendix B Advisory Committee/Board, Appendix F, p.] / No
4.19Program provides (or partners with service providers who provide) participants with legally prescribed psychotropic or addiction medication (MAT)[4-6m] / No
4.20The minimum length of the drug/DWIcourt program is 12 months or more / Yes
4.21Treatment providers are licensed or certified to deliver substance abuse treatment [4-21] / Yes
4.22Treatment providers have training and/or experience working with a criminal justice population [4-21] / Yes
4.23The treatment court program has processes in place to ensure the quality and accountability of the treatment provider[4-19, 4-20, 4-21, 4-26-32] / No
4.24Caseloads for probation/supervision officers do not exceed 30 active participants (up to 50 if mix of low risk and no other caseloads/responsibilities) [4-24] / No
4.25Caseloads for clinicians providing case management and treatment do not exceed 30 active participants (up to 50 if counseling OR case management) [4-25] / No
Key Component #5: Abstinence is monitored by frequent alcohol and other drug testing
- Guiding Principle #4: Supervise the Offender
5
5.1Drug testing is random/unpredictable [5-4] / Yes
5.2Drug testing occurs on weekends/holidays [5-4] / No
5.3Collection of test specimens is witnessed directly by staff [5-6] / Yes
5.4Staff that collect drug testing specimens are trained in appropriate collection protocols [5-6] / Yes
5.5Drug test results are back in 2 days or less [5-7] / Yes
5.6Drug tests are collected at least 2 times per week[1][5-4] / No
5.7Participants are expected to have greater than 90 days clean (negative drug tests) before graduation [6-22] / Yes
Key Component #6: A coordinated strategy governs drug court responses to participants’ compliance
- Guiding Principle #7: Develop Case Management Strategies
6
6.1Program has incentives for graduation, including avoiding a criminal record, avoiding incarceration, or receiving a substantially reduced sentence / Yes
6.2Sanctions are imposed immediately after non-compliant behavior (e.g., drug/DWIcourt will impose sanctions in advance of a client's regularly scheduled court hearing) [6-10] / Yes
6.3Team members are given a written copy of the incentive and sanction guidelines [6-1] / Yes
6.4Program has a range of sanction options (including less severe sanctions such as writing assignments and community services and more severe sanctions such as jail time) [6-7] / Yes
6.5In order to graduate participants must have a job, be in school, or be involved in some qualifying positive activity [6-20] / No
6.6In order to graduate participants must have a sober housing environment[6-21] / No
6.7In order to graduate participants must pay all court-ordered fines and fees (e.g., fines, restitution)or fulfill alternative requirements / Yes
6.8Participants are required to pay drug/DWIcourt fees [6-16, 6-18] / Yes
6.9The drug/DWIcourt reports that the typical length of jail sanctions is 5 days or less [6-19] / No
6.10The drug/DWIcourt retains participants with new possession charges (new possession charges do not automatically prompt termination) / Yes
Key Component #7: Ongoing judicial interaction with each participant is essential
- Guiding Principle #6: Take a Judicial Leadership Role
7
7.1Participants have status review sessions every 2 weeks, or once per week, in the first phase [7-10] / Yes
7.2Judge spends an average of 3 minutes or greater per participant during status review hearings [7-13] / No
7.3The judge’s term is as least 2 years or indefinite [7-3] / Yes
7.4The judge was assigned to drug/DWIcourt on a voluntary basis [7-14] / Yes
7.5In the final phase of drug/DWIcourt, the clients appear before the judge in court at least once per month [7-11] / Yes
Key Component #8: Monitoring and evaluation measure the achievement of program goals and gauge effectiveness
- Guiding Principle #9: Evaluate the Program
8
8.1The results of program evaluations have led to modifications in drug/DWIcourt operations [8-11] / No
8.2Review of program data and/or regular reporting of program statistics has led to modifications in drug/DWIcourt operations [8-11] / Yes
8.3The drug/DWIcourt maintains data that are critical to monitoring and evaluation in an electronic database (rather than paper files) [8-1, 8-2] / Yes
Key Component #9: Continuing interdisciplinary education promotes effective drug court planning, implementation, and operations / Performing this practice?
9
9.1All new hires to the drug/DWIcourt complete a formal training or orientation [9-1, 9-6] / Yes
9.2All members of the drug/DWIcourt team are provided with training in the drug court model [9-4] / Yes
9.3Drug/DWIcourt staff members receive ongoing cultural competency training [9-4] / No
Key Component #10: Forging partnerships among drug courts, public agencies, and community-based organizations generates local support and enhances drug court program effectiveness
- Guiding Principle #10: Ensure a Sustainable Program
10
10.1The drug/DWIcourt has an advisory committee that includes community members [10-3] / No
10.2The drug/DWIcourt has a steering committee or policy group that meets regularly to review policies and procedures [10-2] / Yes
gBest Practices Table - NM October2017
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[1] Assessment asks about frequency of testing during the program’s first phase. If this item is marked “Yes,” verify that program maintains drug testing frequency for the duration of the program.