Drug-involved Offenders Research Articles

The effect of drug treatment court on recidivism: a comparison with traditional court intervention

Drug treatment courts have transformed the way in which courts process drug-related cases and respond to drug-involved offenders. Established as a diversion program, drug courts help to reduce recidivism among substance-involved individuals. Given the rapid expansion of drug courts across the nation, research examining their effectiveness has also increased. While there is evidence that drug courts are successful at reducing recidivism compared to more traditional court interventions, several studies in the literature have lacked an adequate comparison group using appropriate statistical techniques to reduce selection bias. Further, questions remain whether specific types of interventions or outcomes of those interventions are more beneficial than others. The current study adds to the existing drug court literature by conducting an outcome evaluation in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin to determine whether differences in recidivism existed between individuals in a drug treatment court and a comparison group of traditionally adjudicated individuals. Within-group differences were also examined to determine whether the type of intervention (drug court graduates, drug court revoked, traditional probation, traditional incarceration) was significantly influential in the likelihood of recidivism.

Drug Use Disorders before, during, and after Imprisonment

Drug-involved offenders have been long overrepresented in prisons. Intensified drug law enforcement in many countries increased both incarceration rates, especially for drug offenses, and numbers of drug-involved prisoners. This is attributable to four features of drugs and drug markets. Drug use disorders typically are not the only problems facing drug-involved prisoners. A high proportion exhibit severe mental health problems such as major depression, personality disorders, and psychotic disorders. Before incarceration, many drug-involved prisoners have unstable housing and are at high risk of homelessness; incarceration increases that risk. The high concentration of drug-involved offenders in prisons presents numerous challenges. After release, the most obvious are high rates of drug relapse and recidivism. Former prisoners have extraordinarily high risks of drug overdoses shortly after release; in the long term, diseases acquired during imprisonment are transmitted in the community. Effective prison-based drug treatment holds promise to break this cycle and mitigate physical and mental health problems of drug-involved prisoners. Unfortunately, access to treatment modalities proven to be effective in reducing drug use and recidivism is limited. A paradigm shift in drug enforcement and treatment is needed to meet the challenges presented by individuals with drug use disorders more effectively.

Examining Sanction Type and Drug Offender Recidivism: A Register-Based Study in Finland.

Nordic countries incarcerate offenders at much lower rates in comparison with incarceration rates in the United States, and reincarcerate fewer people per capita. Noncustodial alternatives to sanctions, including fines and community service, are used extensively in Finland to reduce negative effects of institutionalization and subsequent disadvantage caused by incarceration. The nature of drug-involved offenders within the Finnish system is reviewed in light of current research about the effectiveness of incarceration and deterrence-based approaches for drug offenders. Employing a 2014 sample from register data (consisting of official government records) of drug offenders in Finland with a 3-year recidivism period, this study utilizes a genetic matching procedure to compare offenders who received fines, conditional sentences (probation), or incarceration. While recognizing that numerous confounding variables affect incarceration, we compare a matched sample of drug offenders and the sanctions they have received from the Finland judicial system to determine whether offenders who initially receive a fine or a conditional sentence reenter the correctional system at different rates than those who are incarcerated. After matching, results found no significant differences between offenders receiving incarceration sentences or those who received noncustodial sentences (fine, or conditional sentence) for general and drug-related recidivism. These results are presented within the context of the Finnish corrections system in order to inform the criminal justice community about culture, incarceration, and process differences that could positively affect working with drug offenders in other localities.

Impaired driving among rural female drug-involved offenders

Objective Very little is known about rural female impaired drivers despite disproportionate rates of impaired driving arrests and associated traffic fatalities in rural areas. The present study examined past-year impaired driving histories and impaired driving correlates in a sample of rural female drug-involved offenders. Methods Female drug-involved offenders (N = 400) from 3 rural jails completed a confidential interview focused on substance use and related risk behaviors. After removing cases with missing data (n = 23), participants self-reporting past-year impaired driving (n = 254) were compared to those who did not (n = 123) on demographic characteristics, substance use, mental health, and criminal histories. Impaired drivers also reported the substances involved in their past-year impaired driving episodes. Results A significantly higher percentage of impaired drivers reported past-year use of 8 of the 11 substances (including alcohol) examined when compared to other drug-involved offenders. Though symptoms of major depressive and posttraumatic stress disorders were similar, significantly more impaired drivers (49.6%) reported symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder than did other drug-involved offenders (35.0%). No differences in criminal histories were found. Nearly all (94.9%) impaired drivers reported driving under the influence of drugs in the past year; less than one-fourth reported driving under the influence of alcohol. Prescription opioids were the most prevalent substance type involved in impaired driving episodes (84.6%), followed by anti-anxiety medications (40.9%). Approximately one-third of impaired drivers reported driving under the influence of methamphetamine (33.9%), marijuana (31.5%), and alcohol (30.7%) in the past year. Conclusions Findings indicate that rural female impaired drivers may have more extensive substance use and mental health problems than other rural female drug-involved offenders. In addition, study results suggest that a recent history of impaired driving may serve as a marker for a more extensive substance use history. Other implications include that early identification of impaired drivers in at-risk groups may be an important opportunity to prevent future traffic injuries and fatalities.

Long term effects of drug court participation: evidence from a 15-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial

This study compares 15-year recidivism and incarceration outcomes for individuals randomly assigned to Baltimore City’s Drug Treatment Court (BCDTC) or traditional adjudication. Additionally, the study examines the moderating effect of court of assignment. This study is based on a randomized controlled trial. Participants include 235 drug-involved offenders with substantial criminal and substance use disorder histories who were adjudicated within Baltimore City’s District and Circuit Courts. Key measures include number of arrests; convictions; person, property, drug, and violation of probation (VOP) charges; and days of incarceration. A measure of exposure time is included to account for time spent free in the community. Negative binomial regression and growth curve models test for group differences on each dependent variable over the 15-year follow-up. Additional models assess whether or not originating court moderates the treatment effect. Participation in BCDTC resulted in significantly fewer arrests, charges, and convictions across the 15-year follow-up period, including several crime-specific differences. Originating court moderated the effect of participation for convictions, such that treatment participants in the Circuit drug court had significantly better outcomes than those in the District drug court relative to their controls. Participation in BCDTC did not have a significant effect on total days of sentenced incarceration. Results suggest that drug courts have the potential to lead to sustained, long term effects on criminal offending for individuals with significant criminal history records and chronic substance use histories.

The Treatment Group and Recidivism: A Multilevel Analysis of Prison-Based Substance Abuse Treatment

This study contributes to the substance abuse treatment literature by examining recidivism across treatment groups, the level of aggregation between the individual and the program. The sample consisted of 618 drug-involved offenders who participated in 12 different treatment groups within a single prison. Reincarceration significantly varied across groups, controlling for time at risk and treatment modality. This between-unit variation was explained by individual level treatment response measures and control variables. Results demonstrated that treatment effectiveness is impacted by the group in which the individual participates. These findings have substantial implications for correctional treatment theory, research, and policy.

An Initial Assessment of Leon County Florida's Pre-Arrest Adult Civil Citation Program.

Momentum is building behind law enforcement-assisted diversion programs. Some of these programs have been designed specifically for drug-involved offenders, while others focus on adults who have no prior involvement in the criminal justice system. The Leon County Pre-Arrest Diversion program, which has been operating since March 2013, offers first-time arrestees the opportunity to participate in an alternative to arrest-as-usual. Successful completion of the program results in avoidance of a formal criminal arrest record. This paper provides an initial assessment of participants involved in the program during the first 3years of operation. Results indicate male participants, those who submitted a positive drug test at program initiation, and those who presented significantly greater behavioral health needs were more likely to fail to complete the program and become rearrested. These findings are discussed with regard to practices among pre-arrest diversion programs.

Perceptions of Balanced Justice and Rehabilitation for Drug Offenders

Drug courts were designed as a way to provide both rehabilitation and sanction-based approaches to drug offenders. Yet studies have not directly tested a “balanced” approach to justice for drug offenders. Drawing on the work of Mears, Pickett, and Mancini, this study adapts the philosophical tenets of juvenile courts into a drug court setting. This study uses multinomial logistic regression from a sample of 575 undergraduate criminology and criminal justice students from a large southern university to assess support for sanctioning approaches for nonviolent and violent drug offenders. Findings suggest that participants support a balanced justice approach to sanctioning violent drug offenders, whereas supporting a rehabilitation approach to sanctioning nonviolent drug offenders. The findings from this study highlight the importance of the public’s differing views on sanctioning drug-involved offenders.

Drugged driving and other high-risk behavior among rural drug-involved female offenders

Drugged driving and other high-risk behavior among rural drug-involved female offenders

Dealing More Effectively with Problematic Substance Use and Crime

AbstractFrom the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, the basic drug-crime policy challenge was to manage social harms associated with the heroin and cocaine epidemics. As they ebbed, the crime-drug policy challenges changed. Alcohol receives greater attention as the leading criminogenic substance. Efforts are under way to improve and expand substance use disorder (SUD) treatment for criminally active populations. Model nontreatment interventions seek to monitor and deter use among individuals whose use endangers others. Two key issues are the continuing high rate of alcohol-related crime and violence and opportunities to expand SUD treatment for criminally active populations under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Alcohol taxes, regulation of alcohol venues, and model programs such as Dakota 24/7 are promising paths to reduced alcohol-related crime. Problem-solving courts can be made more pertinent to the broad range of drug-involved offenders. Existing treatment systems face many challenges in providing mental and...

Building Bridges in New Jersey.

This article describes the experience and outcomes of the National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies 2 Improving Best Practices in Assessment and Case Planning for Offenders protocol in the state of New Jersey. The protocol was designed to test the effectiveness of an Organizational Process Improvement Intervention in improving four assessment and case planning domains for drug-involved offenders in correctional settings transferring to community treatment based agencies. This article describes the protocol and the change team model process through which correctional and community agency staff collaborated to improve assessment and case planning for offenders with substance abuse problems. The primary goal of these collaborative efforts was to link information across stages of the treatment continuum to improve service coordination. Data taken from qualitative interviews with agency participants are used to illustrate the common themes that emerged relating to the intervention process, barriers to implementing developed goals, and facilitative factors that contributed to successes. The findings from the current study provide indication that organizational process improvement strategies can be implemented within a correctional setting to reduce interorganizational barriers and to facilitate improvements in the continuum of care involved in the treatment of offenders with histories of substance abuse.

Indicators of rearrest among male court mandated substance use treatment patients

Purpose – Effective substance use treatment is a viable way to reduce criminal justice contact among drug-involved offenders, but there is still a lot to learn about which indicators have the greatest impact on treatment outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to determine which clinical indicators influenced the likelihood of rearrest among male drug-involved offenders. Design/methodology/approach – This prospective longitudinal study examined indicators of 12-month post-treatment rearrest for male criminal justice-involved substance use treatment patients. Multinomial logistic regression results drawn from a sample of 1,531 adult male patients who were mandated to substance use treatment indicated that there were different factors related to the likelihood of one as well as multiple post-treatment arrests. Findings – Demographic risk factors, such as age and unemployment, were associated with significant increases in the probability of experiencing an arrest within 12-months of treatment discharge. Substance use relapse was also a significant indicator of the likelihood of rearrest and contributed to an increase in the odds of one post-treatment rearrest as well as multiple rearrests. A drug dependence diagnosis, relative to a diagnosis for alcohol dependence, was associated with an increased likelihood of rearrest. Participation in outpatient treatment was associated with a lower likelihood of rearrest. Practical implications – These findings emphasize the need for treatment providers to concentrate heavily on demographic risk reduction to minimize the chance that male patients are rearrested after treatment. Relapse prevention, on the other hand, is critical in the effort to minimize the number of post-treatment rearrests in this population. Originality/value – The results from this study provide evidence to empirically support the refinement of substance treatment programs for male patients involved in the criminal justice system.

Social support quality and availability affects risk behaviors in offenders.

Background People involved in the justice system are at 2.5 times the risk of HIV infection compared to the general population, which is further complicated by substance abuse. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of social network quality and quantity on unprotected sex, criminal risk, and substance use.MethodsWe used data from 330 drug-involved offenders. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to model and test path directionality and magnitude between the latent constructs of social support quality and quantity on risky behaviors.ResultsThe SEM indicated the latent construct of social support quality was significantly associated with reduced sexual risk behavior (β = −0.27), criminal risk (β = −0.26), and reduced substance use (β = −0.33). Additionally, the proposed model found that social support quantity was significantly positively associated with increased sexual risk behavior (β = 0.40) and substance use (β = 0.20).ConclusionsSocial support quality is an important predictor of risky behaviors; as the quality of an offender’s social support increases, engagement in risky behaviors decreases. Probationers who had broader social support availability also had increased substance use and unprotected sex. Probation systems may be able to reduce substance use and STD/HIV infection risk in offenders by strengthening the quality of social support networks.

Exploring Butane Hash Oil Use: A Research Note

ABSTRACTThe practice of “dabbing” has seen an apparent upswing in popularity in recent months within American drug subcultures. “Dabbing” refers to the use of butane-extracted marijuana products that offer users much higher tetrahydrocannabinol content than flower cannabis through a single dosage process. Though considerably more potent than most marijuana strains in their traditional form, these butane hash oil products and the practice of dabbing are underexplored in the empirical literature, especially in prohibition states. A mixed-methods evaluation of a federally funded treatment program for drug-involved offenders identified a small sample (n = 6) of butane hash oil users and generated focus group interview data on the nature of butane hash oil, the practice of dabbing, and its effects. Findings inform discussion of additional research needed on butane hash oil and its implications for the ongoing marijuana legalization debate, including the diversity of users, routes of administration, and differences between retail/medical and prohibition states.

CORRELATES OF INTERORGANIZATIONAL SERVICE COORDINATION IN COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS.

Because weak interagency coordination between community correctional agencies (e.g., probation and parole) and community-based treatment providers has been identified as a major barrier to the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for treating druginvolved offenders, this study sought to examine how key organizational (e.g., leadership, support, staffing) and individual (e.g., burnout, satisfaction) factors influence interagency relationships between these agencies. At each of 20 sites, probation/parole officials (n = 366) and community treatment providers (n = 204) were surveyed about characteristics of their agencies, themselves, and interorganizational relationships with each other. Key organizational and individual correlates of interagency relationships were examined using hierarchical linear models (HLM) analyses, supplemented by interview data. The strongest correlates included Adaptability, Efficacy, and Burnout. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Desistance for a Long-Term Drug-Involved Sample of Adult Offenders

Using a mixed-race sample of male and female drug-involved offenders who were released from prison in the early 1990s and re-interviewed in 2009 through 2011, this article represents perhaps the first attempt to determine the utility of the identity theory of desistance (ITD) in explaining desistance in a contemporary cohort of adult drug-involved offenders. Supporting the ITD, interview narratives revealed that the vast majority of offenders who successfully desisted from crime and substance misuse had first transformed their offender identity into a non-offender identity. Although partnership and employment did not appear to be significant turning points per se for the majority of our respondents, rekindling relationships with extended family and finding living-wage employment did serve to solidify new prosocial identities once the transformation had occurred.

The relationship between electronic goal reminders and subsequent drug use and treatment initiation in a criminal justice setting

IntroductionOpportunities to influence behavior through the use of electronic reminders has not been examined in a criminal justice population. The purpose of this study was to assess probationer preferences for short-term goals from a web-based program and evaluate the role of voluntary electronic reminders (e.g., text messaging, email) in achieving early treatment and probation tasks. MethodsWe used data from drug-involved offenders (n=76) participating in a clinical trial of a 2-session motivational computer program. As part of the program, participants could choose to receive text or email reminders about their probation and treatment goals for the next month. Poisson regression models were utilized to evaluate goal and reminder selection in relation to the days of substance use and treatment attendance at two-month follow-up. ResultsThe most common goals were related to probation and treatment tasks, relationships, and cognitive reappraisals. Forty-five percent of probationers elected to receive electronic goal reminders at Session 1 with a slight increase at Session two (49%). Probationers who opted to receive electronic goal reminders at Session one selected significantly more goals on average (M=4.4, SD=2.1) than probationers who did not want reminders (M=3.4, SD=1.8), (t=2.41, p=.019). Reminder selection and total number of goals selected predicted days of substance use and treatment attendance at a two-month follow-up. Probationers who opted not to receive electronic reminders and those who only chose to receive reminders at one visit had more days of substance use compared to those who chose to receive reminders at both visits, 1.66 and 2.31 times respectively. Probationers who chose not to receive electronic reminders attended 56% fewer days of treatment compared to those who chose to receive reminders at both visits. ConclusionsPeople's choice of short-term goals and reminders can provide advance notification of the likelihood of substance use and treatment initiation. Probation systems might use such information to triage at-risk probationers to a higher level of service, before problems have emerged.

Breaking the cycle demonstration project: using a quasi-experimental analysis to test the “worst of both worlds” hypothesis and risk principle

Objectives The purpose of this study was to test the “worst of both worlds” hypothesis and the risk principle in a sample of drug-involved offenders enrolled in the Breaking the Cycle (BTC) demonstration project, an intensive drug intervention implemented in Birmingham, Alabama, Jacksonville, Florida, and Tacoma, Washington.

Effects of a strategy to improve offender assessment practices: Staff perceptions of implementation outcomes

BackgroundThis implementation study examined the impact of an organizational process improvement intervention (OPII) on a continuum of evidence based practices related to assessment and community reentry of drug-involved offenders: Measurement/Instrumentation, Case Plan Integration, Conveyance/Utility, and Service Activation/Delivery. MethodsTo assess implementation outcomes (staff perceptions of evidence-based assessment practices), a survey was administered to correctional and treatment staff (n=1509) at 21 sites randomly assigned to an Early- or Delayed-Start condition. Hierarchical linear models with repeated measures were used to examine changes in evidence-based assessment practices over time, and organizational characteristics were examined as covariates to control for differences across the 21 research sites. ResultsResults demonstrated significant intervention and sustainability effects for three of the four assessment domains examined, although stronger effects were obtained for intra- than inter-agency outcomes. No significant effects were found for Conveyance/Utility. ConclusionsImplementation interventions such as the OPII represent an important tool to enhance the use of evidence-based assessment practices in large and diverse correctional systems. Intra-agency assessment activities that were more directly under the control of correctional agencies were implemented most effectively. Activities in domains that required cross-systems collaboration were not as successfully implemented, although longer follow-up periods might afford detection of stronger effects.

Breaking the addictive cycle of the system: improving US criminal justice practices to address substance use disorders.

Recent political commentary in the USA has suggested that there is great potential for current criminal justice practices designed for drug-involved offenders to be significantly overhauled in the near future. It is imperative to plan for these changes by assessing how well current programs serve drug-involved criminal justice populations. The paper aims to discuss these issues. This critical assessment begins with an overview of the most recent research on the prevalence and impact that substance use disorders have within the criminal justice system. Although the evidence demonstrates that relying on incarceration as a crime control method for drug-involved offenders has many shortcomings, there are innovative new programs being adopted across the country. Two of these promising programs are discussed, as well as the potential results that could be realized from integrating medication assisted treatment into appropriate criminal justice programs designed for drug-involved offenders. Incarceration is a failed practice for attending to the underlying reasons why many drug-involved offenders become involved in criminal activities. There are encouraging new programs emerging in different parts of the USA, but the inclusion of supplemental treatment options could further promote positive outcomes. The impending expansion of criminal justice programs for drug-involved offenders must consider how innovative new programs can be fused with supplemental treatment options to achieve the best results.