In an effort to engage qualified participants as early as possible, Drug Court’s primary referral source is the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.  These cases are called “post-plea diversion” cases.  In a post-plea diversion case, the offender/potential participant, upon conditional acceptance into the program, must plead guilty to the charge(s) in his or her criminal case.  Then, rather than being sentenced, the offender’s file is sent or “diverted” to the Drug Court judge while the defendant is participating in the Drug Court program.  Upon successful completion of the program, the participant will be allowed to withdraw his or her guilty plea, and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office will then drop the charge(s) against the participant.  This is a huge benefit and incentive for participants to successfully complete the program.  However, if the participant drops out of the program or is otherwise terminated by a vote of the Drug Court team for repeated violations, such as recurring and continued drug use, or a new violation of the law, the participant’s case is sent back to the judge who accepted the participant’s guilty plea.  Then, the terminated participant will be sentenced by that judge in accordance with the law for his or her offense(s).

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Additional cases are referred as probationers typically by their probation officers or probation judge.  Usually, there are defendants who have previously pleaded guilty, were granted probation and subsequently tested positive for controlled substance and/or committed other violations of their probation.  Often, for these participants, successful completion of the Drug Court program is their last chance to avoid revocation of their probation and possible prison time.