Ongoing Drug Court Research: The Multisite Adult Drug Court Evaluation

NIJ is funding a major drug court evaluation, called the Multisite Adult Drug Court Evaluation, that is building upon successful process and impact evaluations of individual adult drug court programs.

This five-year longitudinal process, impact and cost evaluation study of adult treatment drug court programs is employing a hierarchical model and is sampling nearly 1,800 drug court and non-drug-court probationers from 30 rural, suburban and urban jurisdictions across the United States. Results are expected by the end of 2009.

Data from MADCE will include:

• Three waves of interviews using Computer Assisted Personal Interview technology.
• Administrative records on treatment and recidivism and drug detection tests for offenders.
• Court observation and interviews with site staff and other stakeholders.
• Detailed budget and other information for cost studies.

The MADCE study is addressing several research questions:

• What is the impact of adult drug courts on alcohol and other drug use, criminal recidivism, employment and other functional outcomes?
• What community, program and offender characteristics predict these long-term outcomes?
• How do changes in short-term outcomes—such as offender perceptions and attitudes—mediate the impact of programs on long-term outcomes?
• Are there cost savings attributable to drug court programs?