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NCJ Number:
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NCJ 194046
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Title:
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Analysis of 26 Drug Courts: Lessons Learned, Final Report
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Author(s):
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Michael W. Finigan Ph.D. ; Shannon M. Carey Ph.D.
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Date Published:
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12/2001 |
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Page Count:
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29 |
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Sponsoring Agency:
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Grant Number:
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Commissioned Paper |
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Sale Source:
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NCJRS Photocopy Services
Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849-6000
United States |
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Document:
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PDF |
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Agency Summary:
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Agency Summary |
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Type:
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Program/project evaluations |
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Language:
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English |
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Country:
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United States |
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Annotation:
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This study analyzed the content of 26 process evaluations of drug
courts across the country, using a lessons-learned approach. |
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Abstract:
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Major issues and problems in implementation reported by the
drug-court evaluators are categorized as "contextual" issues and "implementation" issues. Contextual issues identified in the
evaluations are lack of cooperation among collaborators, the need
for a system of graduated sanctions, a balance of rewards and
sanctions, problems with transitions through program phases, and
the development of an effective management information system.
Implementation issues identified are a lack of consistency in
program delivery, screening and assessment instruments issues, a
smaller number of participants than expected or a larger number
of participants than expected, lack of program resources,
personnel turnover, urinalysis issues, and high incidents of
bench warrants. Some notable programmatic strengths and practices
reported are in the areas of gender-specific case management,
public relations, aftercare, screening and assessments, urine
testing, adjunct resources, close cooperation between the court
and the treatment provider, a satellite office for the drug
court, and the use of public defenders. Although the process
evaluations focused on implementation issues, several provided
some data on intermediate outcomes of drug courts. The two
outcomes most often presented in the reports were recidivism and
graduation rates. None of those who examined subsequent
recidivism data were able to compare the results for drug court
participants with a reasonable comparison group. The major
intermediate outcome measure used by most of the evaluations was
the graduation rate; however, there was disagreement among the
reports on how this should be calculated, which yielded very
different rates. The six lessons learned from the process
evaluations are as follows: cooperation among key stakeholders in
the drug court is central to its success; there is no standard
for program composition, the number of phases that are
appropriate, and how advancement is made from phase to phase; an
effective management information system is critical to the
successful implementation of a drug court, but the effort to
create it can seriously hinder the implementation of the drug
court; there is often inconsistency in the way a program is
implemented for each client; there needs to be more effort to
find a balanced range of incentives and sanctions available to
the drug court; and most programs face serious problems
associated with the fact that they have many fewer referrals and
program participants than anticipated or, in some cases, they
have more referrals than anticipated. A recommendation is offered for addressing each of the aforementioned lessons. An appendix
charts findings from the process evaluations. |
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Main Term(s):
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Drug courts |
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Index Term(s):
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Drug treatment ; Drug offenders ; Court management ; Case management ; NIJ final report |
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To cite this abstract, use the following link:
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=194046
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* A link to the full-text document is provided whenever possible. For documents
not available online, a link to the publisher's web site is provided.
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