El Paso Drug Court Expansion Project - The purpose of the El Paso Drug Court Expansion Project is to expand substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and recovery support services in El Paso County for those attending the Driving While Intoxicated Drug Treatment Court (DWI Court). The DWI Court is a specialized court designated to handle adults convicted of DWI offenses. The mission of the program is to enhance public safety and strive to reduce recidivism of alcohol and drug offenders through a cost-effective integrated continuum of care and a judicially supervised regime of treatment and comprehensive case management. Eligible individuals are adults ages 18 years or older with DWI offenses; misdemeanor and/or felony who reside with in El Paso County. Demographics of the target population are 96% white and Hispanic, 81% male, 19% female, the majority (49%) are between the ages of 36 and 65, 100% have substance use disorder (SUD) with 74% diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder, 70% are employed full-time, and 57% are independently housed. Aliviane, Inc., a non-profit, behavioral health provider specializing in substance use treatment for adults and families will be the primary treatment provider and fiscal agent for the project. The El Paso Drug Court Expansion Project is proposing to expand collaboration between the DWI Court and Aliviane to provide a continuum of care, including prevention, treatment, and recovery services for individuals with SUD involved in the DWI Court. The program will increase promotion and recruitment of new clients into the DWI Court. Treatment providers will be fully integrated as part of the DWI Court and will attend regularly scheduled meetings with prosecutors to identify potential clients for the program. The program will expand and enhance services designed to help change behavior and reduce recidivism among DWI offenders by providing early, continuous, and intense judicially supervised treatment, mandatory periodic drug testing. The program will also use appropriate sanctions and other habilitation services including implementation of fully integrated and trauma informed co-occurring screening, assessment, and evidence-based substance use and behavioral health treatment for twelve months. The program will provide recovery support services throughout the course of treatment to increase support systems and relapse prevention and to ensure comprehensive service coordination throughout the 12-month program. Participants will receive service coordination across multiple community providers addressing primary care needs, housing, employment, individual support services, childcare, educational, and transportation services. The enhanced services proposed removes funding as a barrier to accessing high quality services for the proposed target population. This proposal increases the length of treatment and significantly improves access to evidenced based practices. Participants will have an opportunity to spend considerably more time in treatment than those on traditional probation; studies have shown that longer time spent in treatment often predicts success in reducing recidivism (Fuller et. al., 2007). The project will expand access to treatment for 80 individuals per year, 400 over the course of the project. Additionally, all 100 individuals served by the DWI Court, 500 over five years, will be provided with enhanced treatment services.
