Criminal justice clients are a considerable percentage of clients who take part in alcohol and drug treatment programs in Santa Monica and in the USA. Judges in the U.S. are finding it more advantageous to rehabilitate people who have ended up in the court system for crimes relating to drugs, rather than penalizing them to no avail with jail time and other penalties. It has proven more helpful to tackle the problem of addiction directly, rather than enforce these sorts of penalties. Most who do not end up in alcohol and drug rehab will often turn right back up in the criminal justice system, while criminal justice clients in drug rehabilitation generally don't fall back into drug use and have a much better chance at staying abstinent and out of the court system for good.