Soon after taking the bench in 2004, Yellowstone County District Court Judge Ingrid Gustafson noticed a troubling pattern. Many defendants passing through her criminal court in Billings, Montana, were repeat offenders with a substance use disorder that incarcerations had done little to address.
Six years later, Gustafson founded the Yellowstone County Adult Drug Treatment Court to give offenders a chance to complete an addiction treatment program rather than serving prison time for nonviolent felonies. “They’re not really criminals,” Gustafson said. “They’re people with a bad disease, and they need help managing that disease.”
Source: Science
Read more at: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6451/334
