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Welcome to “DC Public Safety” – Radio and television shows, blog and transcripts on crime, criminal offenders and the criminal justice system.

We currently average 133,000 page views a month.

This is radio show 161.

The portal site for “DC Public Safety” is http://media.csosa.gov.

Transcript available at http://media.csosa.gov/podcast/transcripts/2012/11/the-success-of-drug-courts-the-urban-institute-dc-public-safety-radio/

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Current Radio Program: Success of Drug Courts-Multi-Site Evaluation:

The program interviews Shelli B. Rossman, Senior Fellow, The Urban Institute.  Shelli co-authored “The Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation” (http://www.nij.gov/topics/courts/drug-courts/madce.htm) . The research was funded by the National Institute of Justice of the Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice.

The website for the Urban Institute is http://urban.org .

Partial Research Summary:

Do Drug Courts Reduce Substance Use, Crime, and Other Problems?

Substance Use: Drug courts produce significant reductions in drug relapse. Drug court participants were significantly less likely than the comparison group to report using any drugs (56 vs. 76 percent) in the year prior to the 18-month interview, and also less likely to report using “serious” drugs (41 vs. 58 percent).

Crime: Drug courts produce significant reductions in criminal behavior. Drug court participants were significantly less likely than the comparison group to report committing crimes (40 vs. 53 percent) in the year prior to the 18-month interview. Participants were significantly less likely to report committing any crime at both the six- and 18-month follow-up interviews. Also, of those who reported criminal activity at the 18-month follow-up, drug court participants reported about half as many criminal acts (43.0 vs. 88.2), on average, in the year prior.

Other Psychosocial Outcomes: Drug court participants experience select benefits in other areas of their lives besides drug use and criminal behavior. At 18 months, drug court participants were significantly less likely than comparison offenders to report a need for employment, educational, and financial services, suggesting that drug court participation addressed those needs.

Special Announcements:

A top priority for Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is to invest in scientific research to ensure that the Department is both tough and smart on crime. The Office of Justice Programs’ CrimeSolutions.gov website shapes rigorous research into a central, reliable, and credible resource to inform practitioners and policy makers about what works in criminal justice.

A new website lists and evaluates prisoner re-entry programs nationwide. Launched yesterday by the Urban Institute, the Council of State Governments, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Prisoner Reentry Institute, the “What Works Clearinghouse” can be seen at http://nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/what_works.

The National Reentry Resource Center is a project of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice. Please see the Center’s website at http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/. Please see “Federal Interagency Reentry Council Launches Website, Releases Myth-Buster Series” on the front page of the site (see announcements). CSOSA is a member of the Council.

Several requesters have asked for national research on reentry. The Office of Justice Program’s National Institute of Justice reentry research portfolio supports the evaluation of innovative reentry programs. To access these studies and NIJ’s entire reentry research portfolio visit www.nij.gov/nij/topics/corrections/reentry/welcome.htm .

Correctional Social Media:

The Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project offers a video on research to reduce recidivism as well as brief but powerful overviews of reentry and sentencing research. See http://www.pewstates.org/projects/public-safety-performance-project-328068 .

The U.S. DOJ Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships recently held two successful webinars on Faith and Community Based approaches to Reentry and Responsible Fatherhood Initiatives. Click the links below to watch/listen to these informative webinars.

1. Faith and Community Based Approaches to Responsible Fatherhood and its Impact on Delinquency Prevention, see https://bjatraining.org/2012/04/10/faith-and-community-based-approaches-responsible-fatherhood-and-its-impact-delinquency
2. A Look at Faith & Community-Based Approaches to Offender Reentry, see https://bjatraining.org/a-look-at-faith-community-based-approaches-to-offender-reentry

The Louisiana Department of Corrections/Division of Probation and Parole is offering radio shows on offender reentry. Please visit their website at http://doc.la.gov/pages/reentry-initiatives/reentry-radio/ .

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services offers podcasts at http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/pio/podcasts.html.

Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency:

We welcome your comments or suggestions at leonard.sipes@csosa.gov.

The website for the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency is http://www.csosa.gov/.

The program is hosted by Leonard Sipes. The producer is Timothy Barnes.

Comments offered on “DC Public Safety” television and radio programs are the opinions of participants and do not necessarily represent the policies of CSOSA or other government agencies.