Evaluation of Program Completion and Rearrest Rates Across Four Drug Court Programs

• NCJ Number: 213090
• Author(s): Donald F. Anspach, Vincent Collom, Andrew S. Ferguson
• Date Published: January 2005
• Length: 8 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored

Annotation

This study explored how differences in post-program rearrests among drug court participants are related to differences in participant characteristics, program compliance requirements, and program discharge status.

Abstract

The results of this study support previous research findings that show that drug court graduates succeed while terminated participants fail. Results of the study should also remind members of the criminal justice community that drug court is only effective for some offenders. The most significant factor associated with rearrest following drug court participation was program completion status. While only 9 percent of drug court graduates had been rearrested during the 12-month follow-up period, a full 41 percent of terminated participants were rearrested. Logistic regression models indicated other factors associated with post-program recidivism at one or more of the four drug court sites: treatment attendance rates, having an in-program arrest, race, age at first arrest, and gender. Data were drawn from a larger study assessing the efficacy of drug abuse treatment in the context of drug courts. Information was gathered on 2,357 drug court participants in 4 States (California, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Missouri) regarding their demographics, treatment attendance, outcomes of drug testing, program completion status, and 12-month post-program arrests. Data analysis relied on multivariate and step-wise regression models. Footnotes, figure