WEB SITE:  www.ladcp.com

                Drug courts are an increasingly important aspect of the criminal justice system. However, possibly more important are the professionals who create, coordinate, and continue these drug courts.  The professionals behind these movements often include case managers, therapists, district attorneys, public defenders, and judges.  An important resource for these professionals is having membership in associations that allow them to communicate effectively with each other. An example of this type of association is the Louisiana Association of Drug Court Professionals. Information on this organization can be found on the world wide web at www.ladcp.com.  Researching this web site has proved helpful in understanding the goals and direction that the professionals in drug courts have.

            The website’s home page has a mission which includes, but is not limited to the following statements:

“LADCP is an organization that is operated exclusively for charitable, educational, literary, and scientific purposes. Its purpose is to engage in the business of rendering services, promotion, education or assistance of any nature and description relative or related to the reduction of substance abuse, crime and recidivism by promotion and advocating for the establishment and funding of Drug Courts and providing for collection and dissemination of information, technical assistance, and mutual support to association members. A "Drug Court" is a court specifically designated to administer cases referred for judicially supervised drug treatment and rehabilitation within a jurisdiction.”

The other purposes that are focused on in bulleted points include promotion and advocacy of drug courts, reduction of abuse, crime, and recidivism, and assistance to professionals involved in drug courts. The homepage is laid out very clearly. 

    The homepage includes several links to resources for readers (both non-professional and professional). There are links that give contact information for all adult and juvenile drug courts in Louisiana. The information includes city, parish, judge, and all necessary addresses and phone numbers. Some other links provide information about drug courts that are in the planning process and to the standards for adult drug courts. There is a link to the Louisiana Drug Court Law. The rest of the links are specifically aimed towards the professionals. These links include articles of incorporation, bylaws, and a listing of the board of directors. Perhaps the most interesting link is to the LADCP newsletter. The newsletter is a thorough resource for both professionals and non-professionals looking for more information about the progress of drug courts in Louisiana. This particular link is where all current statistics and information about drug court programming can be found.

    Although the newsletter was thorough in length, it was written in a way that was primarily aimed at the professionals who already know what is going on. Since the web site is public, it would be helpful if the newsletter was written in a way that general readers could completely understand. Some of the facts that were easy to pull out of the newsletter section were the following:

·         There are juvenile drug courts in nine different Louisiana cities (including Shreveport and Lake Charles).

·         There are also adult drug courts in nine different Louisiana cities (including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Livingston, and Alexandria).

·         There is one juvenile and there are four adult drug courts in the planning process. The juvenile court is set to be in New Orleans.

·         The LADCP has annual training conferences to insure the high quality of professionals in Louisiana Drug Courts.

·         Louisiana gives the opportunity for Family Drug Court.  The purpose of Family Drug Court is for professionals to form an alliance with parents while also becoming advocates for the children. There are behavior contracts formed between the child, the parent, and the counselor.

The newsletter also gave a brief summary of each judicial district’s current news. Almost all of the districts mentioned had graduated students previously. The newsletter stated that the Fifth JDC (unclear on where this is located) was harshly affected by budget cuts-an issue that is aparently affecting all Louisiana Drug Courts. Jefferson JDC claimed an less than 8% recidivism rate, while those who have chosen probation over drug court have experienced an 80-85% recidivism rate.

            Overall, the LADCP web site was thorough and informative. However, it would have been helpful to have a link to general facts and statistics about Louisiana Drug Courts or a link to the Louisiana Drug Court System. The web site is public and needs to be as easy as possible for the public to comprehend. There was great difficulty and time consumed in trying to sift through all the professional information in the newsletter in order to get to the relevant facts about Louisiana Drug Courts. However, the LADCP should be commended for having such a strong professional organization to back up such a fast-paced and growing program in Louisiana. 

Sarah Berkemeier

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