Court Diversion Program Research Articles

Preliminary analysis of the Northern Territory's illicit drug court diversion program highlights the need to examine lower program completion rates for indigenous clients

Court drug diversion programs are now available in all jurisdictions in Australia, but there is increasing evidence that such programs have differing success rates for certain client populations, including indigenous clients. This study investigates client characteristics, program completion rates and factors associated with retention, for all 484 clients admitted to the Northern Territory's Court Referral and Evaluation for Drug Intervention and Treatment 12 week illicit drug pre-sentence court diversion program between July 2003 and December 2008. Client data were collected by court clinicians as part of the face-to-face assessment interview and treatment outcomes were recorded. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that indigenous clients were significantly less likely to complete their treatment than non-indigenous clients, as were clients who were younger, male, had an educational level of Year 10 or less, were unemployed, had a previous custodial order and used drugs other than cannabis. The lower program completion rates for indigenous clients are consistent with findings from other Australian studies and highlight the need to further explore and address factors contributing to this result.

Young people who attend specialist alcohol treatment: who are they and do they need special treatment?

Patterns of drinking in adolescence and young adulthood may have major short term impacts and influences on later drinking, yet little is known about the characteristics of young people who seek help for alcohol problems. Here we examine the characteristics of treatment episodes for adolescents and young adults who present to specialist alcohol treatment in New South Wales (NSW). The NSW Minimum Data Set for Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services was examined for all alcohol-related treatment episodes (N=21,012) reported between July 2004 and June 2005. We compared treatment episodes for adolescents aged 12-19 years, young adults aged 20-29 years and clients aged 30 years or more for their demographics, drug use and service delivery characteristics. Clients aged under 30 years were significantly more likely to be referred into specialist treatment by a police, court or criminal justice diversion program compared with older clients (adolescent: OR=3.7, 95%CI: 3.1-4.4; young adult: OR=2.2, 95%CI: 1.9-2.4). Concern about cannabis use was significantly higher among younger clients (adolescents: OR=2.8 95%CI: 2.3-3.3; young adults: OR=2.1, 95%CI: 2.0-2.4) than those aged 30 years or more. Younger clients were also more likely to be of Indigenous origin or seen in a rural setting. Adolescent and young adult alcohol treatment clients include a higher proportion of clients who are Indigenous, legally coerced, and who have concerns with polydrug use. Service providers should seek to tailor their treatment programs to better meet these unique needs and to better attract young people into voluntary treatment.

The Magistrates Early Referral into Treatment (MERIT) Pilot Program: A Descriptive Analysis of a Court Diversion Program in Rural Australia

There has been a rapid expansion of drugs courts and diversion programs in Western countries, with the aim of diverting drug offenders into treatment. This study presents data from a rural pre-plea court-based diversion into treatment program for adult defendants appearing at a Local (Magistrate's) Court who have significant illicit drug problems. Unusual features include the intended duration of treatment (three months), and the emphasis on specialised caseworkers, who provide case management services, intensive individual counseling and group therapy sessions, and attend court, providing detailed legal reports. In the first two years, 238 participants were recruited to 266 program episodes. The participants were mostly recidivist offenders, with 61% having been previously imprisoned, and 85% having at least one prior conviction. Half the participants completed the program. Characteristics significantly associated with program completion were principal drug of concern (heroin/amphetamines vs. cannabis/other, OR = 0.4 |95% CI: 0.2, 0.7|), Aboriginality (Aboriginal vs. not, OR = 0.4 |95% CI: 0.2, 0.9|) and accommodation (privately owned vs. other, OR = 2.5 |95%CI: 1.3, 4.7|). Participants identified the caseworker support as the most important element of the program. We conclude that the program was successfully implemented, and that adequately supported skilled caseworkers were critical to its success.

THE TRUANCY COURT DIVERSION PROGRAM OF THE FAMILY COURT, WARREN CIRCUIT COURT DIVISION III, BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY: AN EVALUATION OF IMPACT ON ATTENDANCE AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Educators, parents, and community services partnered with the family court judge to implement the Truancy Court Diversion Program (TCDP). TCDP significantly impacted unexcused absences, unexcused tardies, and academic performance of the elementary and junior high students participating in the program. Elementary participants were more likely to maintain their improved attendance following participation than were junior high participants. Nonetheless, junior high participant grade point averages increased during TCDP and were maintained subsequent to TCDP. TCDP was an effective intervention for improving attendance and academic performance and helping preclude future delinquency.

Juvenile Diversion: Results of a 3-Year Experimental Study

In a 3-year longitudinal study of first-time juvenile status offenders assigned at random to three treatment groups and a control group, no significant differences were found in recidivism rates among the groups. A total of 398 juveniles in this study were cited for offenses of tobacco or alcohol in a medium-sized metropolitan northwest city. The offenders were assigned at random to four groups: a traditional magistrate court, a traditional youth court diversion program, a new nonjudicial-diversion program, and a control group. None of the groups, including the control group, showed a significant difference in recidivism rates. It was determined from the evaluation of all groups that the diversion program offered the most cost-effective program intervention to provide more services to potentially troubled teens.

Outpatient commitment: A therapeutic jurisprudence analysis.

This article analyzes the legal and therapeutic jurisprudence considerations raised by outpatient commitment. Although older forms of outpatient commitment have both legal and therapeutic advantages, preventive outpatient commitment raises serious legal problems and potential antitherapeutic consequences that may outweigh its claimed therapeutic value. As a result, alternatives are proposed, including wider availability of community treatment and outreach and case management services, assertive community treatment, police and mental health court diversion programs, and creative uses of advanced directive instruments and behavioral contracting. Proposals also are made for how preventive outpatient commitment can be applied more therapeutically, including hearings that accord patients a sense of procedural justice and techniques designed to motivate individuals facing such hearings to agree to accept treatment voluntarily.

Prevention, Community Services and Proposition 36

The Prevention Panel of the Therapeutic Jurisprudence conference presented several examples of community services and prevention policies that should be brought into the mix of services and supports for Prop 36 and for other court diversion programs. This article summarizes those presentations and suggests how they might be put to work as effective alternatives to incarceration.

The motives and mechanics of operating an illegal drug enterprise

This article examines the structure and process of illicit drug-dealing activities.Motives,mechanics of operations, and strategies used to avoid detection and to identify law enforcement are allexamined, providing a clearer picture of the lifestyles lead by drug dealers. On the basis of qualitative interviews conducted with participants in a drug court diversion program in a mid-sized, midwestern city, the means by which drug dealers initiate and maintain a career in drug dealing, how deals are transacted, and how law enforcement is avoided are explored.

Analysis of a Juvenile Court Diversion Program

ABSTRACT This article addresses a gap in knowledge about the characteristics of adolescents served by court diversion programs. Labeling and stress theories provide the theoretical framework for understanding the adolescents, their actions, and the societal response. This study of randomly selected cases of a juvenile court diversion program presents a characterization of adolescents, their families of origin, employment, offenses, and processing in the diversion system. Principal findings include the impact of alcohol, unemployment, and the variability in processing. The study suggests that the clients committed minor offenses and supports the thesis of net widening.

Compulsory Treatment for Drug Abuse

Using research which shows treatment to be effective in reducing intravenous drug abuse, and the importance of retention in treatment as a determinant of outcome, compulsory treatment is examined and a set of policy and research recommendations are developed. Particularly, civil commitment and court diversion programs are reviewed for their potential impact on reducing the number of intravenous drug abusers at risk for contracting and transmitting the AIDS virus. Recommendations include the provision of: effective methods for detecting drug abusers, appropriate legal protections, systems linkages, treatment, and recognition that drug dependence is chronic. It is also suggested that available treatments such as methadone maintenance be used by the criminal justice system for referrals.

Thinking About Law and Its Alternatives: Abel et al. and the Debate Over Informal Justice

There has been strong support recently in the United States and other parts of the Western world for a variety of instruments that can loosely be labeled informal justice. In essence this has entailed supplementing, or even supplanting, parts of what we now accept as the formal legal system with such institutions as neighborhood justice centers, family mediation units, criminal court diversion programs, ombudsmen, and small claim tribunals. Much of the initial impetus for these developments came from critics of the formal legal system, including many whose political/philosophical stands can accurately be described as radical. (It is equally true, however, that many eventual supporters of informal justice have been long-time supporters of theformal legal system and are part of the legal establishment.) In what at first appears to be a major irony, some of the strongest criticisms recently aimed at informal justice have come from those whose general philosophical orientations can best be described as ranging from Critical to radical. Indeed, the irony is heightened because at least the more recent radical criticism of informal justice is bolstered by the preference of these critics for the formal legal system. The two-volume series, The Politics of Informal Justice, edited by Richard Abel, contains 20 essays that collectively provide a wealth of material explicating this radical critique of informal justice. The collection, even in the most sympathetic view, varies considerably in quality of argument, logic, and supporting evidence.

Psychiatric Disturbances in Drunk Driving Offenders Referred for Treatment of Alcoholism

The incidence of psychopathology in persons arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI) has serious implications in both alcoholism treatment and in general highway safety. This study investigated the types of psychopathology, as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), in a sample of 116 males referred for treatment by a court diversion program.