NEW YORK - The New York State court
system today announced the release of the most comprehensive
statewide analysis of drug treatment court efficacy ever
published. The report, which was funded by the U.S. Department
of Justice and produced by the Center for Court Innovation—the
research and development arm of the state court system—found
that New York drug courts had reduced recidivism by an average
of nearly 32 percent. Drug courts now operate in 49 states
in this country, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto
Rico and Guam.
This study is an in-depth, multi-site statistical analysis of drug court programs,
which link non-violent, addicted offenders to judicially-monitored drug treatment
instead of incarceration. The evaluation is the first in the nation to demonstrate
a meaningful reduction in recidivism consistently across a large number of sites
over a long-term tracking period. In addition to recidivism, the report also
details the addiction history of drug court participants, treatment retention
rates and predictors of successful treatment.
With over 18,000 individuals in New York having participated in drug court programs
since its inception, the court system estimates that taxpayer savings have totaled
an excess of $254 million. These projections are based on savings in incarceration
costs alone, which amount to an average of $14,053 per drug court participant,
not even including other cost-savings associated with an addict becoming sober,
such as reductions from foster care, welfare and other social services.
Researchers from the Center for Court Innovation studied eleven courts from across
the state, including courts from urban, suburban and rural counties. They discovered
that participants in court-mandated treatment stay in treatment longer than those
who seek treatment voluntarily: after one year, over 60 percent of the participants
in the eleven drug courts studied were found to have either successfully completed
their treatment programs or to be continuing in treatment, compared to a random
sampling of in-patient treatment programs nationwide which showed only 10 to
30 percent who completed or were continuing in treatment.
More significantly, in comparing participants enrolled in six of the state’s
oldest drug court programs to similar defendants from each jurisdiction that
did not enter a drug court, the study found an average decline in recidivism
of 31.7 percent for drug court participants (including both graduates and failures)
in the year following program completion. Studies of drug courts in other states,
including Maryland, Oregon, Florida and California, echo these findings.
“It is a startling fact,” said New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye, “that
almost half of this state’s prison population are serving time for a drug
offense. Undeniably, drugs exact a heavy toll on our criminal justice system
and are a grim reality that the courts cannot ignore. For this reason, we began
instituting drug courts in New York less than a decade ago, and their effectiveness
in halting the destructive cycle of addiction and criminality is indisputable.
This latest report from the Center for Court Innovation proves with hard, fast
numbers what we have known all along—that drug courts work. The success
of drug courts has positive implications for all of New York’s problem-solving
courts, which handle cases as varied as domestic violence, juvenile delinquency
and mental illness. The findings from this report reaffirm the effectiveness
of problem-solving courts and provide even more impetus to further the expansion
of these specialized, innovative courts.”
Deborah Daniels, Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice,
Office of Justice Programs, stated, “This study, the most comprehensive
of its kind to date, has tremendous implications not only for New York, but also
for other parts of the country. While additional research is warranted, the report
makes a significant contribution to the national knowledge base on the effectiveness
of drug courts.”
The study showed a direct correlation between the seriousness of the charge and
drug court retention, with those facing more serious charges (and, by extension,
longer prison terms) being more likely to remain in the drug court program. This
finding reiterates one of the main premises of drug treatment courts—namely,
that legal coercion greatly increases the chances that an addict will remain
in and successfully complete treatment—further supporting the effectiveness
of drug courts in breaking the cycle of criminality and addiction.
Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman said, “This report is the most
comprehensive statewide study of drug courts ever undertaken. It assesses the
performance of eleven drug courts established in New York State, examining the
progress of drug court participants years after their original involvement with
the court. The extensive research laid out in this report can now quantify the
extraordinary results of New York’s court-mandated treatment initiative,
which have helped to increase public safety, save hundreds of millions of taxpayer
dollars, as well as get addicted individuals back on track as productive citizens
of the community.”
Drug treatment courts have been operating in various New York locations since
1995, but began to be implemented on a wide-scale level with the start of Chief
Judge Kaye’s drug screening and court-mandated substance abuse treatment
initiative in 2000. The goal of creating drug courts in every metropolitan area
and jurisdiction of the state is expected to be achieved by the end of this year.
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