The impact of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office deferred prosecution program

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Deferred Prosecution Program (DPP) on participation outcome patterns and compares recidivism rates between a sample of DPP participants (695) and a comparison group (991) of defendants found guilty through traditional adjudication from February 28, 2011 and December 5, 2012 with recidivism rates through June 6, 2014. Binary logistic and Cox proportional regressions were utilized to evaluate the program. No statistically significant difference in rearrest rates was found for a sample of DPP participants and a comparison group of defendants found guilty through traditional adjudication. However, DPP did have a statistically significant effect on rearrest rates for women charged with theft; in such cases, DPP reduced the likelihood of rearrest by roughly 76%. DPP has the potential to reduce the future collateral consequences of a criminal conviction for individuals who complete the program. Although DPP seems to have limited impact of rearrest rates overall, the program may be revised to target certain types of defendants.

Keywords:

• Deferred prosecution programs
• recidivism
• alternative sentencing
• diversion
• offender rehabilitation
• evidence based-practices

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the State’s Attorney’s Office, the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Department of Probation, the Public Defender’s Office, and the community stakeholders and program participants who informed this evaluation. We would also like to acknowledge and thank ICJIA, particularly Mark Powers for assisting in creating the control group presented in this evaluation.

Notes

1 By low demand program we mean no mandatory services such as therapy, drug testing unless special circumstances, and house visits. Although there are program requirements, see summary above.

Additional information

Funding

Grant 10-JB-FX-0075, awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, through the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, supported this project. Points of view or opinions contained within this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.