Criminal justice client rehabs are available as a considerably better option than jail time or heavy fines for many who have already been convicted of any kind of alcohol or drug related crime. For example, anyone who has been in prison for driving drunk of drugs or alcohol may be eligible to obtain rehabilitation services for his or her problem rather than serving time in prison. The judge may even order the individual receive rehab, either alone or in addition to other consequences. First time offenders specifically are often given the opportunity to select a criminal justice client rehab rather than other sentencing, and it is highly recommended they reap the benefits of it if it's a possibility. The concept behind criminal justice client rehabs is that it is much more effective and efficient to invest time and effort into rehab than punishment. Much research has been carried out to discover how effective this approach is on recidivism rates, i.e. if the individual returns or not to criminal justice system following rehabilitation. All indicators appear to be quite positive, and criminal justice clients that experience rehabilitation have a much better possibility of remaining out of the system following rehab.