An Alternative Spotlight

Abstract This chapter is concerned with the colonial dynamics of therapeutic jurisprudence. Several claims are made about therapeutic jurisprudence that suggests that it may have something important and beneficial to offer to Indigenous persons who come into contact with the system and efforts to decolonize criminal justice more broadly. Yet those claims have received scant critical attention. The colonial dynamics of therapeutic jurisprudence also remain understudied. The chapter takes the most widely recognized example of applied therapeutic jurisprudence—the drug court—as a case study and seeks to shed light on those lacunae. Drawing on observational fieldwork and interview data, the chapter explores the ways in which the structure and operations of those courts perpetuate colonial legacies. The implications of those findings are then discussed in the light of the claims made by proponents of therapeutic jurisprudence—in particular, the extent to which therapeutic jurisprudence can deliver healing for Indigenous persons.