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CONTINUATION OF NATIONAL DRUG COURT EVALUATION

Award Information

Award #
2003-DC-BX-1001
Funding Category
Continuation
Location
Status
Closed
Funding First Awarded
2003
Total funding (to date)
$5,900,196

Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2003, $570,835)

The first year of this study was funded to allow a survey of all adult drug courts to allow a national portrait of drug courts in the U.S. and to provide the basis for selecting drug courts to participate in this multi-site, longitudinal offender-based study of drug court outcomes. The proposed impact evaluation includes 29 drug courts sites and five comparison sites with the goal of interviewing 2,200 offenders. Those drug courts that have a large enough population will permit a random selection of participants, but in the smaller courts it is anticipated that all drug court participants must be contacted. The 600 comparison group cases will be divided among five comparison sites which are located within the same regional clusters as the drug court participants to ease the need for interviewers. The drug courts included in this study are very diverse and when the data are pooled, the variations in policies and practices can be examined with the maximum external validity. Interviews will be conducted with each participant at baseline (within one month of entry into the drug court or court process), then 6 and 18 months later. In addition recidivism data will be examined at 24 months post-baseline. Strategies have been developed to maintain retention in the study at a 75% level. Hierarchical Linear Modeling and other statistical tests will be conducted to determine the impact of various drug court strategies and models on participant outcomes. In addition, a cost benefit analysis will also be conducted.

ca/ncf

Date Created: July 23, 2003