Sanctions and Rewards in Drug Court Programs: Implementation, Perceived Efficacy, and Decision Making

Abstract

A key component of drug courts is the use of graduated sanctions and rewards to encourage compliance; however, little is known about how such systems are actually implemented. The current paper documents the specific behaviors that are sanctioned and rewarded and the sanctions and rewards used, perceptions of the efficacy of sanctions, the level of standardization in the application of sanctions and rewards, participants' understanding of the sanctioning system, and the decision-making process regarding sanctioning in five judicial circuits in Florida. Using qualitative data gathered from interviews with 86 key stakeholders and analyzed using NUD*IST software, we conducted comparisons between drug courts and traditional courts, as well as by respondent role (staff vs. offender). Our main findings are that (1) many more sanctions were used and more behaviors were identified as being likely to result in a sanction in drug courts compared to traditional courts, (2) the sanctions used in drug courts were more treatment oriented than in traditional courts, and (3) the drug courts appeared to emphasize tailoring the sanction to the individual participant rather than applying sanctions in a standardized manner.