Therapeutic Justice

Therapeutic justice seeks to solve underlying problems - generally addiction and mental illness - that generate repeat encounters with the Alaska Judicial System.  

Often referred to as "treatment with teeth," a common denominator in all therapeutic justice programs is the combination of 1) assistance to help the offender address the underlying problem with 2) the coercive power of the court or correctional system.  Data have shown that such programs succeed in breaking the pattern of repeat crime and are especially powerful in reducing DUI crime.  Therapeutic justice protects the public and reduces harm by intervening in dangerous and self-destructive lives.

Alaska's growing system of therapeutic justice includes a range of therapeutic courts and a reentry program for mentally ill prisoners under the Department of Corrections.  These are:

• Mental health courts in Anchorage and Palmer that link mentally ill defendants with court-supervised, community-based treatment in lieu of traditional incarceration.  A Barrow case management project for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome affected misdemeanant offenders, and a Fairbanks juvenile mental health court are under development.
  
  
• Therapeutic courts (known as "drug courts" outside Alaska) treat alcohol and drug-addicted offenders in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Bethel, Juneau and Ketchikan Therapeutic or DUI courts.
  
  
• Family CARE Courts, presently only in Anchorage, but being planned for Bethel and other locations.  These are civil courts that seek to prevent the break up of families by addressing underlying problems (primarily addictions) that led to child custody.
  
  
• The Department of Correction's APIC (Assess, Plan, Identify, Coordinate) Reentry Initiative for mentally ill offenders that provides mentally ill prisoners with case supervision and treatment, medication and other assistance within prison and following release.

Links:

Summary of Alaska's Existing and Planned Therapeutic Courts
Key Components of Drug Courts
Key Components of Mental Health Courts
Alaska Judicial Council, "Recidivism in Felony Therapeutic Courts"