"Reinventing Justice is an indispensable book for anyone studying the drug treatment court movement. It should be required reading for lawyers, judges, treatment professionals, and others practicing in treatment courts throughout the United States. Nolan's impressive work contains fascinating ethnographic observations, which are made even more significant because they are presented to the reader alongside his skillful discussion of the historical roots, socio-political context, and likely impact of the treatment court movement on the criminal justice system of the future. From the first page to the last, this book is beautifully written, engaging, and informative."--Richard C. Boldt, University of Maryland School of Law""In this fine book, James Nolan extends his earlier work on the growing role of therapeutic ideas in contemporary culture. Here, he examines the cultural dominance of the therapeutic idiom in current efforts to deal with the problem of drugs. Based on extensive observations of drug courts and interviews with people involved in them, he shows why these courts have become popular across the country, how they function, and what they tell us about our changing understandings of justice."--Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University"An important, well-written work that pays sustained ethnographic attention to the newly emerging therapeutic drug court. James Nolan reports that a new concept of justice is on the rise: a kind of justice in therapeutic pursuit of the appearance of changing hearts, requiring confessions far beyond the realm of factual evidence, while delving into an inquisitorial morass of motive and self-accountability. This book adds to a still small literature that provides rigorous, empirical accounts of the therapeutic age. It is a significant statement about how remarkably influential this age has become."--Jonathan B. Imber, Wellesley College""Rarely has there been an attempt to move beyond pragmatic/evaluative questions to consider the place of drug courts within criminal justice generally, or explore the theoretical underpinnings of their operation. This book by James Nolan is both welcome and timely. It will become a standard text for all readers interested in drug courts."--Philip Bean, Loughborough University