Several counties in New Jersey have a Drug Court program. Drug Court is essentially a program where the State gives non-violent and addicted drug offenders a chance at recovery instead of the sending them to State prison. The Drug Court Manual specifies that a defendant may be eligible for drug court under N.J.S.A. 2C:35-14 (Special Probation for prison-bound offenders) or N.J.S.A. 2C:45-1 (Ordinary Probation).
Drug Court is not picnic and it requires the participants to be employed and at the same time under intense supervision. In order to monitor the participant’s adherence and success the participants will be subjected to random and frequent drug testing, as well as court appearances. Furthermore, the Court will require that participants receive counseling and drug treatment of the Court’s choice. In essence Drug Court is an intense probationary period which lasts for a certain amount of time which will also be set by the Court. The amount of time can vary from case-to-case.