D. Jay Stewart attended the National Drug Court Professionals’ 19th annual training conference July 14-17 in Washington, D.C.
The conference provided state-of-the-art training to drug-court personnel from across the country, including judges, defense lawyers, prosecutors, addictive disease counselors and court administrators. The Atlantic Judicial Circuit Drug Court was initiated by Stewart in January 2009 to provide drug treatment to non-violent criminal defendants whose appearance in Superior Court was due, in large part, to the use/abuse of drugs.
The drug-court program consists of five phases over the course of two years in which the participant receives intensive drug counseling while maintaining full-time employment or is a full-time student. The program further provides significant savings to taxpayers as most participants otherwise would be incarcerated. Participants must
remain drug-free for a minimum of one year prior to graduation from the program. Since its inception, approximately 40 graduates have completed the program.