Integrated public health-public safety strategies blend the functions of the criminal justice system and the drug abuse treatment system in an effort to optimize outcomes for offenders (Marlowe, 2002).

Substance abuse treatment assumes a central role in these programs, rather than being peripheral to punitive ends, and is provided in clients' community-of-origin, enabling clients to maintain family and social contacts and seek or continue in gainful education or employment. Responsibility for ensuring clients' attendance in treatment and avoidance of drug use and criminal activity is not, however, delegated to treatment personnel, who may be unprepared or disinclined to deal with such matters and who have limited power to coerce patients to attend.

The criminal justice system maintains substantial supervisory control over offenders and has enhanced authority through plea agreements and similar arrangements to respond rapidly and consistently to infractions in the program.

Noteworthy examples of recent integrated public health-public safety strategies include drug courts and work-release therapeutic communities, which are described in the following sections. While these certainly are not the only conceivable models of integrated strategies, they are the only ones that have garnered consistent empirical support for their efficacy in reducing drug use and recidivism.

Programs that represent the public health-public safety integration strategy and that have demonstrated effectiveness share a core set of attributes: