NCJ Number
100130
Date Published
1986
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This video discusses the District of Columbia's pretrial program to test and monitor arrestees for drug use, with attention to its benefits, urinalysis procedures used, and trends revealed by data collected.
Abstract
An outline of the program's benefits focuses on its impact on conditions of release and controls over arrestees prior to trial. All arrestees except minor traffic offenders undergo a urinalysis as part of the Pretrial Service Agency's intake interview to gather information that judges use to determine release conditions. The urinalysis can determine the presence of PCP, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, and methadone. The video explains how the testing machinery operates, emphasizing its speed and accuracy. A positive test can result in an arrestee being released on recognizance with the condition that he or she appear for a weekly urinalysis. Failure to appear for the test or a second positive reading results in a contempt of court charge, and the arrestee can be jailed or placed in an intensive drug surveillance regime involving twice-a-week urinalysis. During the program's first 10 months, 55 percent of the 12,324 arrestees tested positive for drug use. This data revealed that PCP was the drug of choice on the street, that cocaine use increased dramatically, and that heroin use showed no signs of diminishing. The video explores statistics on drug-related crime, legal issues, testing costs, and effects of treatment versus surveillance.