Criminal justice client rehabs can be considered as being a far better option than prison time or heavy fines for individuals who have already been convicted of any sort of drug or alcohol related crime. For example, a person who has been in prison for driving while impaired of alcohol or drugs may be eligible to get treatment services for his or her problem rather than serving time in prison. The judge might order that the individual receive rehab, either alone or as well as other consequences. First-time offenders specifically in many cases are given the opportunity to choose a criminal justice client rehab as an alternative to other sentencing, and it is well-advised that they make the most of it if it is an alternative. The concept behind criminal justice client rehabs is that it is far more efficient and effective to invest effort and time into rehabilitation 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. All indicators appear to be quite positive, and criminal justice clients who take part in rehabilitation have a much better probability of remaining out of the system after rehab.