The Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation

July 21, 2011 by Andrew Atwal

 

Urban Institute

This new evaluation by researchers from the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center (UI-JPC), RTI International (RTI) and the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) is the first long-term study of drug courts for adults. The study lasted for five years and examined 23 courts and six comparison jurisdictions in eight different states.

The main goals of the evaluation were to test whether drug courts reduce the use of drugs, crimes and other problems of their clients in comparison with offenders not exposed to drug court; address how well drug courts work, and determine the factors that make drugs courts more or less effective than regular courts in achieving desired outcomes; explain how offender attitudes and behaviors change when exposed to drug courts and how these changes could explain effectiveness of drug courts; and examine whether  drug courts generate cost savings.

One of the most significant findings from the study is that these court programs can significantly decrease criminal behavior and drug use, because participants sensed that their judge treated them more fairly, showed greater interest and respect for them, and gave them more opportunities to talk during court proceedings.

The study found few differences among multiple categories of offenders– defined by social ties, demographics, mental health, prior drug use, and criminality– in terms of the magnitude of drug court impact. Findings indicated that nearly all categories of offenders benefit comparably from drug courts, which the researchers said could suggest that widespread drug court policies to restrict the eligibility to a narrow subset of the population might be counterproductive. In addition, drug courts also affected criminal behavior among most of the same subgroups. There were also no subgroup-based differences in the rate of positive drug tests.

 

This is NOT the full artcle

FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE