The effectiveness of drug court treatment programs

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) defines drug courts as specialized programs in law courts that target criminals (both adults and juveniles) who have drug and alcohol reliance problems. The courts have been growing in number and have extended their jurisdiction to include handling of drunken driving cases—driving under the influence (DUI) courts or driving while intoxicated (DWI) courts. As is the norm with most policy changes, drug court treatment programs were designed specifically to achieve two objectives: reduce recidivism rates in the country and save financial resources utilized in dealing with drug and alcohol-related criminal activities. Reduction of Recidivism A majority of existing evaluations into the success of drug court treatment programs in reducing reoffending reveals limited success. A meta-analysis conducted by Lowenkamp, for instance, indicates that the treatment programs offered by the courts cut recidivism rates by approximately 7.

6 times correspondingly). Peters & Murrin (2000) conducted an extended follow-up evaluation of the behavior of drug court graduates in the long run. The follow-up study, done over a period of 2. 5 years, discovered that discovered that drug graduates were more expected to secure employment opportunities and less expected to engage in criminal acts relative to non-participants. Also, when imprisoned for consequent wrongdoings, graduates of drug courts tend to do shorter terms (Carey & Finnegan, 2004; Brown, 2011). Moreover, a 2006 survey by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy approximated the cost of treating juveniles and adults with the drug court programs at $2,226 and $5,000 correspondingly. Although these treatment costs are relatively high, the survey reveals that the costs are balanced off by the savings that accrue when the participants in the programs overcome their drug and alcohol reliance problems and stay clear of committing crimes.

Remarkably, when the adult participants stay for ten years with substance abuse and criminal activities, the resultant savings are as high $12,000 per year. On the other hand, the savings on juvenile participants average $5,000 per year (although a little lower than the savings from the adult participants, the juvenile savings accrue for extended periods of time). Apparently, drug court treatment programs are cheaper for the community than the imprisonment of offenders. Various works of research reveal that substance abusing teenagers often have underlying reasons like depression, physical and verbal abuse, and even low self-esteem. Therefore, while adult drug courts would primarily focus on helping the adult stop using the substance through rehabilitation procedures, juvenile drug courts would normally focus on handling the root cause of substance abuse.

The same goes for criminal offenses. b) Juvenile drug courts also focus on changing the entire behavior of the youth. The courts focus on imparting new sets of skills and values to the offenders which will enable them to become more useful in society. This trend can be attributed to the fact that juveniles are still developing mentally, physically and socially. Treatment and rehabilitation often involve counseling which requires a certain level of flexibility that is often found in juveniles. Most adults have fully developed impulse control mechanisms, brain activity, and judgment, making adult rehabilitation more difficult than juvenile rehabilitation. References Brown, R. Drug court effectiveness: A matched cohort study in the Dane County Drug Treatment Court.  Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 20(3), 315-338.