CHESHIRE COUNTY TREATMENT COURT MISSION STATEMENT
The Cheshire County Treatment Court is managed by a non-adversarial and multidisciplinary team including the superior court judge, the County Attorney, defense attorneys, house of corrections, probation/parole, treatment providers and the coordinator. Support from stakeholders representing law enforcement, the family and the community is encouraged through participation in hearings, programming and events like graduation.

The mission of the Cheshire County  Treatment Court (CCTC) is to enhance public safety, reduce recidivism and rehabilitate felony level offenders who have a substance use disorder. This is accomplished by providing a judicially supervised, community based, comprehensive treatment program including evidence based practices that follow the 10 key components of drug court in order to empower the individual to develop a substance free and law-abiding lifestyle in a fiscally responsible manner.

TARGET POPULATION
The target population of the treatment court program is felony level offenders who have a chronic and progressive legal history that directly or indirectly involves their negative relationship to chemical substances and/or a substance abuse-related violation of probation. All participants are assessed using evidence based assessment tools to determine if they are high risk/high need. Participants must be residents of Cheshire County with the cognitive/physical ability to participate in the program. Those candidates with serious medical conditions outside the resources of the program or mental health symptoms that are not reasonably stabilized shall not be eligible. At the discretion of the drug court team, an applicant may be denied admission if the admission of the applicant would significantly adversely affect another participant’s recovery.

ELIGIBILITY/DISQUALIFICATION CRITERIA

Qualifiers:
• Cheshire County residents
• Diagnosed with a substance use disorder
• Assessed as high risk/high need
• Cognitive/physical/emotional ability to participate in program
• Felony level offenders
• Must be at least 18 years old

Disqualifiers:
• Non-residents of Cheshire County
• Applicant has not taken responsibility for the offense for which the state is seeking a conviction
• Applicant has outstanding warrants or detainers that cannot be resolved
• The emotional trauma and/or mental anguish caused the victim(s) by the applicant’s criminal conduct is such that sentencing the applicant to Treatment Court would not be appropriate
• In the discretion of the County Attorney’s Office, an applicant may be deemed inappropriate.
• Applicant’s demonstrated prior history on probation or parole makes it highly unlikely that the applicant will be able or willing to comply with the terms and conditions of Treatment Court

STRUCTURE/MODEL
The CCTC is based on a post-adjudication model. It is expected that the offender will plead guilty to the offense and sign an appropriate waiver and acknowledgement of understanding of all the consequences and sanctions involved in the program and then be sentenced. For each participant of the drug court program an individual treatment plan will be developed unique to the needs of that participant, to be completed in five phases over a minimum of 12 months in the program. Each participant will be required to partake in all phases of treatment and will be held accountable to standardized expectations for each phase. Failure to comply with the individual components of the treatment plan will result in the imposition of sanctions to be determined by the court at review hearings.

The CCTC program typically lasts 12 -24 months and consists of five phases. Participants enrolled in CCTC must at a minimum:
• Complete in-depth assessments
• Develop a substance abuse treatment plan
• Meet with a Case Manager
• Attend all scheduled treatment and individual program plan sessions
• Submit to random urinalyses weekly
• Make regular court appearances before the Judge and the Treatment Court team
• Obtain or pass the HiSet test – https://hiset.ets.org/
• Seek employment or educational/vocational training
• Attend AA/NA or other alternative secular approved self-help meetings
• Obtain a Sponsor or Recovery Coach within 30 days