NCJ Number
124130
Date Published
1982
Length
111 pages
Annotation
Information from drug-abusing offenders who entered federally funded drug treatment programs in 1979 and 1980 formed the basis of a comparison of the characteristics and outcomes for participants who were referred to treatment by the criminal justice system and those who entered treatment in other ways.
Abstract
The criminal justice referrals came from the Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC) Program and from other criminal justice referrals. The total sample included 7,794 individuals. The analysis showed that criminal justice clients were more likely than the other clients in the Treatment Outcome Prospective Study (TOPS) to be male and young. Criminal justice clients also differed from the others in their drug use patterns and were much more likely to have been involved with the criminal justice system immediately before and in the year before entering drug treatment. Regression analyses also showed that the criminal justice clients stayed in treatment longer and improve at least as much as the other clients in their drug use and criminal behavior during the first 6 months in treatment. Findings are not conclusive because of the short followup period and the lack of controls for certain other factors that may have affected the study's results. Further analysis will take place when more complete TOPS data are available for analysis. Tables and 57 references.