Program Encourages Drug Treatment Over Arrest is a Success

VIDEO – TREAT DON’T COMMIT –

Oct. 23, 2023 – Branch was arrested last summer on drug possession charges. When she was taken to a police station, she was offered the option to have her charges dropped if she agreed to meet with a drug counselor.
That approach is thanks to the city of Chicago’s Narcotics Arrest Diversion Program, an initiative launched in 2018 to offer those arrested for low-level drug offenses a chance to have their charges dropped if they agree to meet with a drug counselor.
Thresholds, a substance abuse treatment organization, has counselors embedded in 25 police stations throughout the city.
“The approach is to meet them where they are, to establish a relationship, to create hope, to create a pathway,” said Jeff Gilbert, who helps administer the program at Thresholds.
He believes it works because the program targets people who might not otherwise have sought help.
“Nobody thinks when they wake up in the morning, ‘I’m going to jail today,’” Gilbert said. “So a lot of people get excited about this being a second chance.”