Criminal justice clients are a significant percentage of clientele who take part in drug treatment facilities in Pierce and across the nation. Court systems in the U.S. are finding it more effective to rehabilitate men and women who have found their way into the criminal justice system for crimes relating to drugs, rather than penalizing them in vain with jail time and other penalties. It has proven more successful to tackle the issue of drug addiction directly, than to enforce these sorts of penalties. Most who do not end up in alcohol and drug treatment will frequently turn right back up in the criminal justice hamster wheel, while criminal justice clients in drug rehabilitation often don't fall back into drug use and have a far better chance at staying abstinent and away from the court system entirely.