National Tasc

TASC (Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities)is a membership association representing programs and individuals from across the United States. National TASC and its members work to develop professional competence in the operation of the TASC model; to promote justice system alternatives; and to otherwise act on behalf of its membership on a national basis. National TASC’s goal is to be a leader advocating for TASC clients, the TASC model, effective policies and research to promote justice system alternatives. TASC began during the 1970s as a criminal justice effort in response to the rising tide of substance-involved offenders revolving through the criminal justice system, developing mechanisms to utilize the treatment system to meet criminal justice goals. Discussion of how to link treatment and the judicial process and interrupt the relationship between drugs and property crimes were held by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), the White House-established Special Action Office for Drug Prevention (SAODAP), and the National Institute on Mental Health’s division of Narcotic Addiction and Drug Abuse (DNADA) predecessor to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The result was a federal initiative, modeled after early experiments with diversion programs and two demonstration projects in New York City and Washington, D.C. Most of these approaches have been freely disseminated through training, technical assistance and replication funded by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, The National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Health and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.