Criminal justice client rehabs can be considered as a significantly better option than jail time or significant fines for those who have already been convicted of any sort of drug or alcohol related crime. As an example, somebody who has been in prison for driving while impaired of alcohol or drugs may qualify to get rehabilitation services for his or her problem as opposed to serving time in jail. The judge might even order the individual receive rehab, either alone or as well as other consequences. First time offenders specifically in many cases are given the chance to pick a criminal justice client rehab instead of other sentencing, and it is highly recommended that they reap the benefits of it when it is an alternative. The idea behind criminal justice client rehabs is that it is far more effective and efficient to invest effort and time into treatment than punishment. Much research has been done to discover how effective this approach is on recidivism rates, i.e. if the individual returns or not to criminal justice system following treatment. The signs and indicators seem to be quite positive, and criminal justice clients that do experience treatment have a much better chance of remaining out of the system after treatment.