Therapeutic Justice is the term behind the inspiration of the name for the Therapeutic Justice Foundation. The term therapeutic jurisprudence is the study of how legal systems affect the emotions, behaviors and mental health of people. It takes its name from jurisprudence, the study of the law, and therapeutic, the power to cure or heal. Although it started in the area of mental health law, therapeutic jurisprudence soon spread to other areas and has emerged as a mental health approach to law, generally.

Therapeutic jurisprudence is the foundation of Drug Courts. Also known as “Problem-Solving Courts", Drug Courts were developed to deal with a range of issues, including substance abuse, and mental health issues. They are also known as “Specialty Courts” or “Therapeutic Courts", because they take a treatment approach to addressing the criminal behavior that is so often fueled by drug addiction or mental health illness.

The Drug Court Model is followed by other Specialty Courts such as Juvenile Courts, Driving While Impaired (DWI) Courts, Mental Health Courts, Prostitution Courts, Family Drug Courts and Veterans Courts; all of which were created based on the belief that those that are facing criminal charges, and whose criminal behavior may have been fueled by drug addiction, trauma or mental health illness, may benefit from treatment instead of incarceration.

All of these courts grew out of the recognition that traditional judicial approaches have failed, at least in the areas of substance abuse, domestic violence, certain kinds of criminality, child abuse and neglect and mental illness. These are all recycling problems, the reoccurrence of which traditional interventions did not succeed in bringing to a halt.

The traditional judicial model addresses the symptoms, but not the underlying problem. This results in problems re-emerging, necessitating repeated judicial intervention. Judges of traditional courts, in general, lack the expertise needed to effectively address the specialized problems. Moreover, they involve treatment, social service needs and tools needed for the success of the participant.

Participation in a Drug Court typically will last for a minimum of one year, but can take longer. Participants of these Specialty Courts must complete an intense regimen of drug treatment, coupled with comprehensive case management, frequent and random drug testing and close supervision. In addition, participants must regularly appear before the Drug Court Judge, who will either reward them for progress made because of good behavior or sanction them for non-compliance. The judge leads a team of professionals who oversee the court and its caseload. This team may consist of a judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, treatment providers, law enforcement officers, supervision officers, program coordinator, case managers and other specialists in social services.

Drug Courts are all characterized by active judicial involvement, and the explicit use of judicial authority to motivate individuals to accept needed services and to monitor their compliance and progress. They are concerned not merely with processing and resolving the court case, but in achieving a variety of tangible outcomes associated with avoiding re-occurrence of the problem. They generate the need for new kinds of information not typically collected by courts, and in the process, have significantly improved the quality and quantity of information needed to understand the problem and deal with it more effectively.

The Therapeutic Justice Foundation, in conjunction with the Bexar County Specialty Courts, plays an educative role in raising community consciousness about the problem in question, its causes and the resources the Courts need to resolve it. In addition, TJF joins these Courts in advocating for the populations that they deal with, and for the increased allocation of community resources needed to resolve their problems.