A Trip to DART Cherry

Last week, through a North Carolina Judicial College program, a group of judges, lawyers, and clerks visited DART Cherry, the state’s lone residential chemical dependency treatment facility for male probationers and parolees. It was an informative visit that, frankly, busted some myths about DART Cherry. Today’s post passes along some of what we learned. First, let’s settle a matter of terminology. The acronym DART stands for Drug Alcohol Recovery Treatment. For many years all substance abuse programming in the corrections department—including treatment programs in prison—was referred to as “DART.” That is no longer the case. Prison-based programs are now referred to as Alcohol and Chemical Dependency Programs (ACDP programs). Prison-based ACDP programs are available at most but not all prisons. By contrast, there are two and only two state-run community-based residential chemical dependency programs for probationers and parolees. They are DART Cherry for men, and Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Women. So, when you impose an active sentence and include a recommendation for “DART,” that is technically incorrect—nobody serving active time goes to “DART,” because DART Cherry is for probationers and parolees. It would be more technically correct to write “recommend ACDP programming,” or something like that. Or, you could just check the box that says the court recommends substance abuse treatment. Ultimately, if you write “DART” on an active-sentence judgment form, Corrections will know what you mean and will steer the person toward treatment if it is needed. But I just don’t want anyone to think that any [...]