Treatment Provider Information

Substance Abuse Treatment

Substance Abuse Treatment is a tool that helps U.S. probation and pretrial services officers supervise or monitor defendants and offenders in the community. These services include urine testing, counseling, and detoxification. Treatment services are provided to persons who abuse illegal drugs, prescription drugs or alcohol. These persons are on probation, on parole, on supervised release after being in prison, or under pretrial supervision while awaiting a court appearance. Treatment is ordered by the U.S. district court as a condition of releasing these individuals to the community.

Treatment gives probation and pretrial services officers the means to address alcohol and drug abuse. For offenders under post-conviction supervision, treatment helps probation officers enforce the conditions set by the court, control the danger offenders may pose to society, and promote law-abiding behavior. For defendants under pretrial supervision, treatment helps officers reasonably assure that these persons appear in court and that society is protected from harm.

The goal of a substance abuse treatment program is to promote abstinence from drugs. This goal is achieved through close supervision, drug testing, and appropriate treatment. Treatment is provided most often through community programs or from treatment providers who are under contract with the United States Courts.

Mental Health Treatment

Mental health treatment is a risk management tool that helps U.S. probation and pretrial services officers supervise or monitor defendants and offenders who are considered to be suffering from some form of mental disease or defect that causes an individual’s behavior or feelings to deviate so substantially from the norm as to indicate disorganized thinking, perception, mood, orientation, and memory. Mental health treatment may include such services as psychological/psychiatric testing and individual, family, or group counseling by a psychologist, psychiatrist, or other licensed practitioner. It may also include medication.

Mental health issues may range from the mildly maladaptive to the profoundly psychotic. These issues may result in unrealistic or aberrant behavior, grossly impaired judgment, inability to control impulses or to care for oneself or meet the demands of daily life, loss of contact with reality or violence to oneself or others.

Mental health treatment helps defendants and offenders address issues that may have led to their problems with the law. Treatment provides the tools to handle life’s stresses and to function better in the community. Treatment services are provided through community services or from treatment providers under contract with the United States Courts.