DART Center Tour, Program Overview, and Practical Takeaways

In October, we administered a class on DWI substantive law and procedure for District Court Judges and Magistrates. As part of that program, I took a group of judges to tour the DART (Drug Abuse & Alcoholism Residential Treatment) Center in Goldsboro, NC. Our visit included a program overview, facility tour, and an opportunity to ask questions. We heard from program leadership, treatment staff, and a few participants at different stages in the program. We also learned about the impact of COVID and the Center’s state of operations since then (spoiler: they have open availability and there’s no waitlist). Overview. North Carolina provides substance abuse treatment for people on probation at no cost in two locations. Men attend the DART Center in Goldsboro, and women attend Black Mountain in Swannanoa. The programming between the two treatment facilities is largely identical. As residential therapeutic communities, participants are not fenced or locked in. While it would be a violation of a condition of their probation, they may leave at any time. I will primarily refer to the DART Center, but the discussion throughout this post is applicable to either program. As of our visit, neither program was at capacity, and there was no waitlist for admission. We heard from: Lateisha Thrash: Director of Reentry Services Barbara Whitaker: DART Center Facility Manager Lisa Gunn: Chief Probation/Parole Officer David Smith: Clinical Program Manager Brenda Crouch: Clinical Substance Abuse Counselor Shonette Harvey: Lead Charge Nurse Scheduled starts. The way the program starts sometimes leads to a [...]