NCJ Number
217857
Journal
Journal of Experimental Criminology Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2006 Pages: 67-98
Date Published
2006
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This study used an experimental design to compare outcomes for 235 offenders assigned either to drug treatment court (Baltimore City, MD) or drug treatment as usual, so as to determine whether any differences between the two groups at 1 and 2 years after the program's start persisted after 3 years, when many of the subjects had ceased treatment.
Abstract
The study found a 15-16 percentage point difference in rearrest that favored drug-treatment participants up to 2 years after the study began. Findings from the third year of the study showed sustained differences in rearrests between the two groups. In addition, drug-court cases had significantly fewer charges than controls (4.4 compared with 6.1), and they were significantly less likely to have been arrested for a drug offense. Of concern, however, was the finding that although drug-court participants had fewer new arrests and new charges than controls, these positive outcomes did not result in overall differences in incarceration time between the two conditions. Findings suggest that if the drug court could find ways to induce greater client participation in the main components of the program, stronger effects on reoffending would be realized. The Baltimore City Drug Treatment Court did not differ significantly from the typical drug court in terms of its components; however, it differed from other drug courts in the type of population it served (mostly African-American male heroin addicts), as well as the involvement of the Division of Parole and Probation in the operation of the program. The study began in February 1997 and involved 139 drug-court participants and 96 controls (treatment as usual in the traditional court). 8 tables, 12 notes, and 44 references