ONDCP Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Grant for Criminal Justice Practitioners

ONDCP welcomes joint applications from two or more eligible applicants; however, one applicant must be clearly indicated as the primary applicant (for correspondence, award, and management purposes) and the others indicated as co-applicants. The applicant should provide information that demonstrates the strength of the commitment of their partnering organizations, as set forth in Memorandums of Understanding, letters of support, statements of work, etc. All co-applicants must have demonstrated expertise in the provision of training and technical assistance on criminal justice systems reform and substance use disorders.

ONDCP’s Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Grant supports training and technical assistance (TTA) that helps states, state courts, local courts, units of local government with drug courts or considering drug courts develop, maintain, and enhance alternatives to incarceration for individuals with substance use disorders. The President’s National Drug Control Strategy lays out reforms to the criminal justice system, addressing unfair sentencing disparities, providing alternatives to incarceration, ensuring treatment and recovery services are available for justice-involved individuals, and improving prevention and reentry programs to protect public safety and improve outcomes for people returning to communities from prisons and jails. ONDCP seeks to reduce drug use and its consequences through evidence-based practices, and this grant will apply these principles to the criminal justice system.

The purpose of this grant is to: (1) educate, train, and produce materials to improve adherence to best practices, (2) decrease justice costs and recidivism, (3) improve access to services and service delivery, and (4) reduce disproportionality of punishment in the criminal justice system. The grant recipient shall:
• Use expert practitioners in the fields engaged in the science of addiction, criminal justice, health care, and drug courts.
• Provide in-person training, online training, and jurisdiction-specific technical assistance to a variety of demographically-composed areas at the state, local, and tribal levels.
• Include ONDCP policy priorities in the development and execution of training and technical assistance programs and educational materials:
o Applying a comprehensive approach in addressing opioid use disorders, including overdose prevention and naloxone administration training, and programs that provide access to medication assisted treatment.
o Diversion programming with evidenced-based and comprehensive case management, treatment for substance use disorders, recovery and other necessary services.
o Consistency of practice among drug courts
• Collect and analyze data from jurisdictions engaged in grantee programming on alternatives to incarceration to determine the effectiveness of the trainings and on-site assistance.
All portions of the application must reflect these objectives and subject matter areas.
Goals, Objectives, and Deliverables

Goal. The program’s goals are: (1) to provide TTA to criminal justice practitioners to develop, maintain, and enhance evidence-based interventions from arrest to reentry; (2) to educate criminal justice professionals on substance use disorders; and (3) to develop TTA on medication-assisted treatment and overdose reversal medications to expand use in drug courts, to support recovery, and to prevent overdose deaths.

Program Objectives. The objectives of the program are as follows:
• To expand the delivery statewide, regionally, and nationally of no-cost, on-request curricula on (1) the science of addiction, and (2) systemic implementation of evidence-based interventions at all points of engagement with the criminal justice system.

• To train trainers on the systemic implementation of the interventions.

• To provide TTA to state and local justice systems to build capacity for implementation, initiate strategic planning, implement appropriate policy and program improvements, evaluate the success of the implementation, and support sustainability.

• To educate drug court practitioners and localities planning drug courts on the implementation of the evidence-based drug court standards for adult drug courts.

• To conduct no-cost training events and educational materials for criminal justice practitioners, including appropriate interventions for individuals with substance use disorders and working effectively with community treatment providers.

• To develop and conduct no-cost training events for drug court professionals on medication-assisted treatment and overdose prevention.

• To track the implementation of systems change among those jurisdictions that receive training under this grant.