Enhancing Drug Court Success

Abstract

This study evaluates the impact of enhanced drug court services in a large county in Southern California. These enhanced services, including specialty counseling groups, educational/employment resources, and increased Residential Treatment (RT) beds, were designed to increase program retention and successful completion (graduation) of drug court. This study examines outcomes for 477 male and 273 female drug court participants between January 2004 and March 2005 in Orange County, California. Data were gathered from various sources including the Drug Court management information system (MIS) and probation records. The results suggest that several enhancements individually increase participation retention (as opposed to termination) in drug court, particularly education, employment, RT, and two specialty counseling groups (Alcohol Recovery and Mask of Addiction). Similarly, participant graduation rates were improved with the individual effects of education, employment, and the same two specialty counseling groups. The combination of RT, specialty counseling groups, and employment achievement increased graduation rates for drug court participants. This research suggests further examination of these variables in alternate settings to determine the extent to which these strong but preliminary results are generalizable.

KEYWORDS:

• addicted offenders
• drug court
• trauma-informed treatment

The authors wish to thank Lynn Fenton of the Superior Court of California, Orange County for the assistance provided in data collection. In addition, they would like to express their gratitude to all the team members of Orange County Drug Court for their participation in this evaluation. Funding for the Enhanced Services for Orange County's Drug Courts and this evaluation was provided by grant #2003-DC-BX-0005 from the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Notes

Note. Frequency distribution with sums less than 100% are due to missing values.

∗Data source is probation files and assessments.

∗Data source for RT and specialty group participation is records maintained by the Health Care Agency.

Data source for the educational achievement and employment gains is probation files.

∗Data source is records maintained by the Heath Care Agency.

∗Data source is records maintained by the Health Care Agency.

∗This article was published posthumously.