Criminal justice clients are a large percentage of clients who take part in alcohol and drug treatment centers in Charlestown, Massachusetts and across the nation. Judicial systems around the country are finding it more effective to treat people who have ended up in the criminal justice system for crimes relating to drugs, instead of penalizing them in vain with jail time and other penalties. It has proven more effective to tackle the trouble of drug addiction directly, rather than enforce such penalties. Most individuals who do not wind up in alcohol and drug treatment will often wind back up in the criminal justice hamster wheel, whilst criminal justice clients in drug treatment generally don't make the same mistakes and have a better chance at remaining abstinent and away from the court system entirely.