Drug Courts have become one of the judicial system's most effective strategies for rehabilitating drug offenders. Judges, prosecuting attorneys, and defense attorneys work together with the offender in a regimen of hearings and interviews devoted to reform and rehabilitation as well as to punishment. In an intense program of monitoring and supervision, the judge can become the defendant's confessor, mentor, and taskmaster, all the while recognizing the serious and debilitating nature of drug abuse as a disorder.

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno was the state attorney in Dade County, Florida, in 1989, and helped to establish the first drug court in the United States. Reno was a featured speaker when the National Association of Drug Court Professionals met in Miami in June 1999 to recognize a decade of progress. Excerpts of her remarks are below.

There are now more than 390 operational drug courts and more than 200 in the planning stages. Even more amazing is the adoption of the drug court philosophy of treatment combined with sanctions -- I call it the good old-fashioned carrot and stick approach.

I think it represents a new era for the courts of this nation. If the courts can control the case, if the courts can have the resources to give juvenile delinquents a chance to grow strong in a positive way and impose changes, and if the courts can be assured of a reentry program that gives people an opportunity to come back to the community with a chance of success, courts can make an extraordinary difference. If courts look at it from a problem-solving point of view and a community point of view rather than just as legal theories, it can really, truly make a difference. I think it is a new era because we have come to recognize that the criminal justice system, in partnership with the public health community, can do so much more together than either can do apart.

Look at what happened. More than 140,000 individuals have enrolled in drug courts around the nation and probably for the first time received real supervision, real treatment that can make a difference in enabling them to become clean and sober. More than 14 states have enacted legislation relating to authorizing or funding drug courts and several more states are on their way in doing so.

Our communities are benefiting. More than 750 babies have been born drug-free to drug court participants. This is one of my favorite statistics. We have got to expand because there are too many children still being born riddled with drugs. More than 3,500 parents were able to regain custody of their children as a result of their drug court participation. More than 4,500 parents have become current in child support payments as a result of drug court participation, and I think that's wonderful.

One of the points that was very clear to us all was that we must have an evaluation of the drug court to continually, constantly look at how we could improve it, that we could never let our standards be impaired. Those evaluations have been extraordinarily important and today we know much more about the success of drug courts than we did even last year. We know from last year's Columbia University National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse Study that drug courts provide closer, more comprehensive supervision, and much more frequent drug testing and monitoring during the program than other forms of community supervision. More importantly, drug use and criminal behavior are substantially reduced while offenders are participating in the drug court.

These are concrete results. We are beginning to see a drug court system that breaks the cycle of substance abuse and crime. I believe the drug court concept as it is expanded into other areas can be absolutely instrumental in helping this nation end the culture of violence that's plagued it for too long.

I used to wonder what would happen if we started looking at crime in America from a problem-solving point of view, with the coming together in each community of police, schools, parks, recreation specialists, business people, and the medical community. If we can come together, if we can deal with guns as we have dealt with drugs and drug courts, if we can deal with the problems of youth who are unsupervised and alone too often in the afternoons and evenings, we can truly make a difference in this country.

We can continue to reduce violence -- it has gone down seven years in a row -- if we continue what you are about here today. But it is imperative, if we are to succeed, for drug courts to reach a broader population and to have an even greater impact on all aspects of our community. Despite all of the successes we have witnessed, we're reaching only a small fraction of the approximately 800,000 arrests that are made for drug possession annually, not to mention drug-related offenses and probation violations. The drug court approach can provide the structure to judicially supervise all cases -- adults, family, and juveniles -- that cover substance abuse offenders. We know it works.

The Justice Department and the government are really pleased. I'm elated to be able to see the increase in federal support for the work that you are doing in your community. Compared to your $11.9 million appropriation four years ago, today the appropriation is $40 million.

We can't stop there. It is not money that's going to make the drug courts the tremendous success they can be. Drug courts are about people, about solving their problems. Because of the people in this room from all over this country, we have shown that you can approach these problems with people in mind, with their hopes, their fears, their dreams, their failures, their frustrations, and help them rebuild a life. We can solve their problems and we can solve the nation's problems and make this nation a safer, healthier place for all to live.