A DECADE OF DRUG TREATMENT COURT RESEARCH

Abstract

As drug treatment courts have multiplied over the past decade, so too have research evaluations conducted on their implementation and effectiveness. This article explores the decade of drug treatment court research conducted at RAND, starting with the experimental field evaluation of Maricopa's drug testing and treatment options to the most current 14-site national evaluation of courts funded in 1995–96 by the Drug Court Program Office. The article presents summaries of findings, a brief description of a drug treatment court typology, and suggestion of where future research might focus.

• Drug treatment court
• Compliance
• Noncompliance
• Collaborative linkages
• Evaluability
• Restorative justice
• Therapeutic jurisprudence
• Management information systems

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Turner

Susan Turner, Ph.D., is Associate Director for Research and head of the Criminal Justice Center for RAND Public Safety and Justice. She has conducted studies on racial disparity, private sector alternatives for juvenile offenders, work release, day fines, 14-site nationwide evaluation of intensive probation supervision, drug courts, and sentencing and correction alternatives for drug-involved offenders.

Douglas Longshore

Douglas Longshore, Ph.D., is Senior Behavioral Scientist in the Health and Public Safety and Justice programs at RAND and a Principal Investigator at the UCLA Integrated Substance Pro-grams. Among his current interests are motivation for drug user treatment and psychosocial factors in crime, drug use, and FHV risk behavior among drug users. He has been principal or co-principal investigator in evaluations of intensive interventions for crime-involved drug users, studies of HIV incidence and risk behavior trends in injection drug users, and prospective multivariate tests of psychosocial models of HIV risk behavior among injection and noninjection drug users.

Suzanne Wenzel

Suzanne Wenzel, Ph.D., is a Behavioral Scientist in the RAND Health Program and Drug Policy Research Center. A community psychologist and health services researcher, her work focuses on domestic violence, drug use, and HIV risk among impoverished women; collaborations between drug court programs and providers of substance use treatment and other services; and access to health services.

Elizabeth Deschenes

Elizabeth “Libby” Deschenes, Ph.D., is a Professor and Graduate Advisor in the Criminal Justice Department at California State University, Long Beach where she teaches courses in Research Methods and Advanced Statistics. She received her BA in Sociology from Colby College, and her MA and Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Deschenes was previously employed by URSA Institute, worked with Dr. Anglin at UCLA on studies of narcotic addict offenders, and is a consultant at RAND. Her research interests are varied as she has conducted studies of violent offenders, gangs, and gender differences. Most of her research has focused on evaluations of juvenile and adult correctional programs. During the last decade Dr. Deschenes has conducted several process and impact evaluations of drug courts, including the Maricopa County (Phoenix Arizona) First Time Drug Offender Program, Los Angeles County's Adult and Juvenile Drug Court Programs, and most recently the Drug Court Program of the Orange County (CA) Superior Court. As a consultant to RAND she worked on the NIJ-funded national evaluation of 14 drug courts that were implemented in 1994–95. Her publications concerning drug courts have appeared in the National Drug Court Institute Review, Journal of Drug Issues and the Justice System Journal. She has a chapter on the Maricopa drug court in The Early Drug Courts, and her most recent chapter on drug courts is forthcoming in Research to Practice, Practice to Research Promoting Scientific-Clinical Interchange in Drug Abuse Treatment. Dr. Deschenes is a member of several organizations, including the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the Western Society of Criminology, and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. She is currently the Vice President of the Western Society of Criminology.

Peter Greenwood

Peter Greenwood, Ph.D., is the President and CEO of Greenwood & Associates and the former Director of RAND's Criminal Justice Program. He has published widely in the areas of violence prevention, juvenile justice, criminal careers, sentencing, corrections, and law enforcement policy. He and his RAND colleagues have recently published several studies comparing the costs and benefits of alternative violence prevention strategies, and he is currently directing several evaluations of prevention programs for “high-risk” youth. In 1998 Dr. Greenwood was recognized by the American Society of Criminology for his contributions to the field of practice with the August Volmer Award. He is also a member of the Homicide Research Working Group and is a past president of the California Association of Criminal Justice Research. He has served on the faculties of the University of Southern California, The RAND Graduate School, the Claremont Graduate School, and on the California Attorney General's Panel on Research and Statistics. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in Industrial Engineering.

Terry Fain

Terry Fain, M.A., is Senior Research Programmer, RAND Public Safety and Justice Program, has extensive experience in management, analysis, and interpretation of criminal justice data for numerous NU- and NIDA-sponsored research projects. He is also a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with extensive clinical experience in treating substance users and criminal justice clients.

Adele Harrell

Adele Harrell, Ph.D., is Director of the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute. She has been actively engaged in studies of “drug abuse” since 1975. Her research includes an evaluation of Breaking the Cycle, a program linking court and treatment services for drug-involved defendants, evaluation of the Brooklyn Treatment Court services for female offenders, and evaluation of the DC Superior Court Drug Intervention Program. She also evaluated the Children at Risk Program, a comprehensive drug use prevention program for youth 11 to 13, and has studied the relationship between arrestee urinalysis results and community indicators of drug-use-related problems among adults and juveniles.

Andrew Morral

Andrew Morral, Ph.D., is Associate Director of RAND's Public Safety and Justice Program and a Behavioral Scientist in its Drug Policy Research Center. His research examines behavioral treatments for adolescent and adult substance users. He has worked closely with criminal justice agencies and community treatment providers to develop program evaluation strategies and treatment planning instruments.

Faye Taxman

Faye S. Taxman, Ph.D., is Director of the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) at the University of Maryland—College Park, and an associate research pro-fessor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland—College Park. The Recidivism Reduction Laboratory at BGR is devoted to improving practice in the field of corrections and substance use. Dr. Taxman has conducted studies in supervision, jail-based programming, intermediate sanctions, pretrial supervision, diversion, and treatment in the criminal justice system. She is currently completing a multi-site study on the Reentry Partnership Initiatives.

Martin Iguchi

Martin Y. Iguchi, Ph.D., is a Senior Behavioral Scientist and Director of the Drug Policy Research Center at RAND, located in Santa Monica, CA. Dr. Iguchi received his A.B. in liberal arts from Vassar College, his M.A. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Boston University, and he completed 2 years post-doctoral training in drug abuse and behavioral pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is a member of CSAT's National Advisory Council, a member of the Board of Directors of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, a member of the Editorial Board for Drug and Alcohol Dependence, and a Principal Investigator on several NIDA treatment grants.

Judith Greene

Susan Turner, Ph.D., is Associate Director for Research and head of the Criminal Justice Center for RAND Public Safety and Justice. She has conducted studies on racial disparity, private sector alternatives for juvenile offenders, work release, day fines, 14-site nationwide evaluation of intensive probation supervision, drug courts, and sentencing and correction alternatives for drug-involved offenders.

Judith Greene is a criminal justice policy analyst. A 1999 recipient of a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship, she has recently been working as a consultant to the RAND Corporation and Human Rights Watch. Over the past decade she served as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School, and directed the State-Centered Program for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. From 1985 to 1993 she served as the Director of Court Programs at the Vera Institute of Justice. Ms. Greene's articles on criminal sentencing issues, police practices, and correctional policy have appeared in numerous publications, including The American Prospect, The Index on Censorship, Crime and Delinquency, Current Issues in Criminal Justice, Overcrowded Times, The Wake Forest Law Review, The Rutgers Law Journal, The Justice Systems Journal, and Judicature. She has presented papers and addresses to scores of organizations and conferences, including the Open Society Institute, the British Columbia Provincial Court Judicial Conference, the Freidrich Ebert Stiftung's International Conference on Police Policy, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the Minnesota Sentencing Commission, the Maryland Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy, and the Youth Law Center. She has presented legislative testimony on sentencing and corrections policy in California, Michigan, New Mexico, and Georgia.

Duane McBride

Duane McBride, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Behavioral Sciences Department at Andrews University, as well as the Director of the University's Institute for the Prevention of Addictions. In addition he is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health in the University of Miami School of Medicine. He received his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Kentucky in 1976. His research interests include, drug policy, consequences of drug use, drug use etiology and prevention, health service research and drug user treatment program evaluation. Dr. McBride has published approximately 80 articles, chapters, books, and monographs in these research areas as well as making frequent presentations at scientific and professional meetings. He is also currently the Principal Investigator on the Illicit Drug Team of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-supported ImpacTeen initiative and Co-Principal Investigator of a Health Services Research Center funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In addition he is a frequent member or chair of NIH grant peer review committees.