Report Back

Buncombe County Commissioners unanimously approved the $1 million federal grant to strengthen the County’s treatment courts, a decision GAP strongly supported. During the discussion, Commissioner Drew Ball asked how American University’s evaluation support would improve the program, and staff described assistance with data collection and analysis. However, no one addressed our central recommendation: that the County examine and publicly report whether racial and ethnic disparities exist in who enters treatment court, who completes it, and who is terminated. We welcome the grant’s approval, but this important accountability question remains unanswered.

The grant will support the County’s treatment courts over five years, including continued funding for an in-house clinician and assistance with safe, stable housing. Treatment Court Supervisor Jillian Davis explained that the clinician helps address gaps in community treatment services and provides individualized therapeutic interventions. She also highlighted the County’s work with All Rise, the national treatment court organization, noting that ASPIRE Court is becoming an academy court where other jurisdictions can learn from Buncombe’s practices.

Commissioner Drew Ball specifically asked about the evaluation support provided by American University. Davis explained that Dr. Jamie Vaskey assists with data collection, interpretation, and grant development. This was a welcome question, and the answer confirmed that the County has access to expertise that could help it assess and improve its programs. But the discussion did not establish what outcomes are being evaluated, whether results are examined by race and ethnicity, or how findings are used to address disparities.

As we explained last week, national research has found racial disparities in access to and completion of treatment courts, and national best-practice standards call for regular monitoring of such disparities. We are not assuming those inequities exist in Buncombe County. We are asking the County to find out. With this new funding and expanded evaluation capacity, the County has an opportunity to demonstrate that its treatment courts provide everyone a fair chance to participate and succeed. We will continue encouraging the County to make that examination part of its ongoing evaluation and public reporting.

Total GAP Supporter Actions Taken: 10

Recipients and Responses:

Buncombe County Commission

• County Commission Chair Amanda Edwards: No response
• County Commissioner Al Whitesides: No response
• County Commissioner Drew Ball: No response
• County Commissioner Jennifer Horton: No response
• County Commissioner Martin Moore: No response
• County Commissioner Parker Sloane: No response
• County Commissioner Terri Wells: No response

Summary: Buncombe County Commissioners will consider accepting a $1 million federal grant to strengthen the County’s three treatment courts, expanding treatment, transitional housing, transportation, and other supports while improving data collection and evaluation. We support the grant. However, because national treatment court research has found racial disparities in who gets referred, admitted, and successfully completes these programs, we also encourage the County to use its expanded evaluation capacity to examine and publicly report whether those disparities exist here.

The Facts: Buncombe County Justice Services has received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, covering October 2026 through September 2030. Commissioners are being asked Thursday to accept the grant and approve the corresponding budget amendment.

The money will support three existing programs: Adult Drug Treatment Court, ASPIRE Court for people with repeat impaired-driving convictions and substance-use disorders, and Veterans Treatment Court. Rather than relying solely on incarceration or conventional probation, treatment courts combine judicial supervision with substance-use treatment, case management, drug testing and recovery supports. Buncombe’s grant will: continue an in-house clinician providing individualized treatment and assessment-driven case plans; expand transitional housing and transportation assistance; strengthen drug-testing capacity; provide staff training; improve data collection, monitoring and referral tracking; and expand program evaluation, with support from American University.

The County expects the investment to increase treatment participation and successful completion while reducing substance use and recidivism. You can read more about the grant here.

Our Assessment: Treatment courts can offer people struggling with substance-use disorders an important alternative to a criminal-justice system built primarily around punishment. Housing, transportation, individualized treatment, and other practical supports can also address some of the barriers that make sustained recovery difficult. For all of these reasons: we strongly support accepting this grant and strengthening these services.

But access to an alternative is equitable only if similarly situated people have a similar opportunity to receive and successfully complete it. National research gives reason to examine that question carefully. The Adult Treatment Court Best Practice Standards (most recently updated in 2023) reports disparities at multiple stages of the process: Black defendants have been less likely to be referred or admitted to treatment courts in some studies and a large multi-court study found lower successful-completion rates among Black participants than white participants. The standards therefore call on treatment courts to monitor their operations at least annually for racial, ethnic, and other disparities and address disparities they identify. (You can read more in this All Rise Adult Treatment Court Best Practice Standard report – see page 36 for the research on disparities, and page 38 for the suggested monitoring practices.)

This also connects to a broader accountability issue Buncombe County has already identified. The City/County Cease the Harm audit, completed in 2024, identified inconsistent collection of racial demographic data across City and County programs as one of its four major findings. The audit warned that these gaps make it difficult to assess who benefits from government programs and whether they are producing equitable outcomes.

The new grant creates an opportunity to address that broader concern within Buncombe County’s treatment courts. It explicitly supports better data collection, monitoring, and evaluation. The County should use that capacity to examine the treatment court pathway from beginning to end: Who is referred? Who is found eligible? Who is admitted? Who receives sanctions or additional support? Who completes the program? Who is terminated, and why? The County should examine each stage by race and ethnicity, identify any significant disparities, and publicly report aggregate findings and corrective actions while protecting participants’ privacy.

Buncombe County already describes addressing racial and ethnic disparities as one of the priorities of its Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. But we have not found current public reporting showing whether referrals, admissions, completion, and termination from the County’s treatment courts differ by race or ethnicity.

We are not assuming that inequities exist in Buncombe County’s treatment courts. But national research gives us good reason to ask whether they do. If the data reveal no significant disparities, that would be reassuring. If disparities emerge, the County and its court partners should investigate where they arise and what changes could address them. That is what meaningful evaluation and continuous improvement should accomplish.

Things to do: We are not suggesting any further action at this time. Last week, we invited you to email County Commissioners and ask them to accept the Treatment Court Enhancement Grant while ensuring that the expanded evaluation tracks and publicly reports racial and ethnic disparities in access, participation, and outcomes.