Criminal justice clients are a large percentage of clientele who take part in alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers in Watauga and across the nation. Judicial systems in the U.S. often find it more effective to treat men and women who have found their way into the court system for crimes relating to drugs, rather than penalizing them in vain with jail time and other such rulings. It has proven more helpful to handle the trouble of addiction directly, than to enforce these sorts of penalties. Most who do not end up in alcohol and drug rehabilitation will often turn right back up in the criminal justice hamster wheel, while criminal justice clients in alcohol and drug treatment generally don't fall back into drug use and have a far better chance at remaining abstinent and away from the court system for good.