Surveys indicate that although substance abuse is a significant problem for over half of jail inmates, only a small fraction of jail inmates in need of drug treatment receive it. Jails provide an opportune time to intervene with offenders who have had little contact with community mental health or substance abuse services. Jail drug treatment programs can encourage inmates to participate in community substance abuse services after their release. Some approaches being used for drug treatment in jails are chemical dependency/self-help approaches, pharmacological approaches, psychoeducational approaches, and therapeutic communities. Types of treatment interventions are detoxification, drug testing, assessment, drug education, AIDS education and prevention, life skills training, educational and vocational training, interpersonal skills training, group counseling, individual counseling, family counseling, psychiatric services, and the modification of criminal thinking errors. Other treatment interventions are self-help groups, case management and transition planning, and aftercare services. The author lists 18 principles of effective treatment, outlines key elements of evaluation data collected for jail substance abuse treatment programs, and suggests a variety of funding strategies for such programs. 49 references