Substance Abuse Services

Virginia has implemented a substance abuse screening, assessment, testing and treatment (DSAT) program for all offenders who committed felony offenses on or after January 1, 2000.

All Probation and Parole Districts have a memorandum of agreement with their respective Community Service Boards (CSB) for treatment services. There are 36 private vendors under contract to provide outpatient or residential services.

The Department of Corrections has developed a network of services to ensure that institutional therapeutic community participants enter residential therapeutic communities followed by Peer Support groups and relapse prevention services upon their return to the community. Contracts with private service providers provide for 66 beds for these offenders. This effort has been named "STRAIGHT: A Program for Life".

Urinalysis is done on a random basis, both on-site and with laboratory testing. Hair testing was pilot tested in a number of districts. More than 300,000 tests are conducted annually in the district and field offices.

Community Corrections also uses drug dogs to randomly inspect its programs and facilities.