The Birmingham initiative, Breaking the Cycle (BTC) was implemented as a large-scale demonstration project designed to answer two questions: (1) what would happen when all components of the criminal justice system focused on drug addiction and applied proven practices to lower the levels of drug dependence among the offender population; and (2) effects on the incidence of drug use and crime if all drug users could be identified early, assessed for their drug treatment needs, referred to appropriate drug treatment, monitored through regular drug testing, and immediately sanctioned for drug use. The BTC program was funded as a demonstration project. The evaluation, not yet complete at the time of the article, was intended to analyze the changes implemented, the barriers faced, and the creative solutions identified. In addition, the evaluation was designed to focus on the effectiveness of the BTC program in lowering drug use among the offender population, reducing criminal behavior, improving indicators of social functioning such as employment and health, and making more effective use of criminal justice resources. 2 notes and 3 photographs