Rule 192: Specialty Court Standards

(a)   General Standards. A specialty court should meet the following general standards:

(1)   Goals and Objectives. The court should have measurable goals and objectives.

(2)   Policy and Procedure Manual. The court should have a policy and procedure manual covering general administration, organization, personnel, and budget matters.

(3)   Evidence‐Based Practices. The court should establish and adhere to practices that are evidence‐based and outcome‐driven and should be able to articulate the research basis for the practices it uses.

(4)   Eligibility Criteria. The court should have written eligibility criteria. To the extent possible, the court should use evidence‐based screening tools as part of the eligibility criteria.

(5)   Treatment Providers. All treatment providers used by the specialty court should be appropriately licensed by the applicable state regulatory authority and trained to deliver necessary services according to the standards of their profession. The court should have a monitoring or quality‐assurance process to ensure that treatment providers are incorporating training and services consistent with evidence‐based best practices.

(6)   Participant Compliance. The court should have written procedures for incentives, rewards, sanctions, and therapeutic responses to participant behavior while under court supervision. Court responses should be evidence‐based when possible. Participant progress should be measured on a regular basis.

(7)  Judicial Education. A judge handling a specialty court docket should be knowledgeable about underlying medical or social‐science research relevant to that docket. When feasible, the court should have at least one backup judge who is familiar with the court’s policies and practices so that the court’s operation remains consistent even when the assigned judge is unavailable.

(b)   Drug‐Court Standards. A specialty court that targets drug‐addicted offenders or others charged with drug offenses should substantially comply with the Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards (Vol. 1, 2013; Vol. 2, 2015) published by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.

[History: New rule adopted effective July 5, 2017; Rule 109B renumbered without amendment to Rule 192 effective January 27, 2021.]