Today was not a good day: offender accounts of the incidents that led to their admission to drug court

ABSTRACT

One method that has been touted to help end mass incarceration is using intermediate sanctions. While intermediate sanctions often present as attractive options, there is evidence that as practiced, these sanctions often result in net widening. One of the most common forms of intermediate sanctions are drug courts, which are often viewed as progressive alternatives to locking up people with substance abuse problems. However, along with the dangers of net widening, scholars have shown that many people admitted to drug courts do not seem to have substance abuse problems and could benefit from lesser criminal justice interventions. In the current study, we analyzed intake data from a drug court to determine: (1) what charge(s) drug participants had and (2) how they became involved with the criminal justice system. Among important findings were that a large number of drug court participants were arrested for the possession of one drug only (often marijuana) and that more than half of participants came to the attention of the criminal justice system through a traffic stop rather than through repeated encounters with the criminal justice system.

KEYWORDS:

• Drug policy
• alternative sanctions
• drug courts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

O. Hayden Griffin

O. Hayden Griffin, III, PhD, JD is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research interests are drug policy, corrections, and law & society. His research has been published in Criminal Justice and Behavior, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Journal of Criminal Justice.

Vanessa Woodard Griffin

Vanessa Woodward Griffin, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of West Georgia. Her research interests are campus crime, sexual assault, and sex offenders. Her research has been published in Deviant Behavior, Criminal Justice Review, and Journal of Criminal Justice Education.

Heith Copes

Heith Copes, PhD is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His primary interest is in understanding the decision-making process and identity construction of people who engage in crime and drug use. His research has been published in Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and British Journal of Criminology.

John Andrew Dantzler

John Andrew Dantzler, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research interests are substance abuse, program evaluation and psychometrics. His research has been published in Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Journal of Engineering Education, and Journal of Science Teacher Education.