Case Study: Drug Courts

Drug courts constitute a clear example of an integrated public health and safety strategy that has shown promise for reducing drug use and recidivism rates. Drug courts are separate criminal courts providing supervised treatment for drug offenders as an alternative to incarceration. Drug courts provide offenders with intensive court supervision, mandatory drug testing, and substance abuse treatment. Successful completion of the program allows the offender to avoid incarceration, have their criminal charges reduced or dismissed, or have their sentences reduced. Those found not in compliance with the program rules typically receive a criminal drug conviction and may be sentenced to incarceration. The evidence is clear that drug courts can increase an offender’s contact to treatment. Numerous drug court evaluation have found, on average, more than half of offenders participating in the program completed at least one year; most of which continue on to graduate from it. This compare favorably to community based drug treatment programs in which, on average, more than three quarters of attendees drop out within the first year. …show more content…
Two experimental studies have compared outcomes between participants randomly assigned to either drug court or a comparable probationary condition. In one study, the Maricopa County (Arizona) Drug Court was found to have had no impact on re arrest rates 12 months after admission to drug court. However, a significant “delayed effect” was detected at 36 months, at which time 33 percent of the drug court participants had been rearrested, compared to 47 percent of subjects in various probationary