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Abstract
This study describes and evaluates specialty groups added to the traditional drug court services in Orange County, California, with a goal of increasing program retention and successful completion (graduation) rates for drug court participants. These enhanced treatment groups added an average of 90 minutes of specialty group therapy to traditional services offered to 139 drug court participants between January 2004 and March 2005. Data were gathered from various sources, including the drug court management information system (MIS) and probation records, as well as pre- and post-test surveys for each specialty group offered. The results suggest three specialty counseling groups (alcohol recovery, mask of addiction, and journaling) were related to positive outcomes in drug court. Limitations of this study include the small sample sizes in some of the specialty groups, as well as the typical enrollment/onset of group therapy that generally occurs as clients successfully progress toward graduation. This research further suggests an examination of these variables in alternate settings to determine the extent to which these strong but preliminary results are generalizable.
The authors wish to thank Elizabeth Piper Deschenes, Ph.D., Professor of Criminal Justice California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Deschenes was the principal investigator on this grant and participated in all aspects of data collection, data analysis, and mentoring the coauthors of this paper. The authors would like to thank 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.