She had been on the bench since 1991, and started the drug court in 1998.

More than 90,000 people have been sent to treatment through drug courts.

Drug courts first started in 1989 and have spread since.

I've never seen positive things happen for people until we started drug court.

It provides money for drug courts and to fight violence against women.

They work for about 70 percent of participants in drug courts across the country, according to criminal justice studies.

At the center of the drug courts' success, judges say, are the participants who turn their lives around.

The result was creation of drug court, a diversion program.

All had been sentenced several weeks after pleading in the special drug court.

But she did select drug court and was released from jail.