NCJ Number
183233
Journal
National Drug Court Institute Review Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: Winter 1999 Pages: 59-91
Date Published
1999
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the cost analysis of the Multnomah County STOP Drug Court Diversion Program (Multnomah County, OR).
Abstract
The article summarizes: (1) the Multnomah County program’s look at whether drug courts actually result in a cost savings to taxpayers; (2) costs used in calculating taxpayer savings; (3) estimated cost avoidance to the county’s criminal justice system for each cohort of drug court participants in the 2 years after their program participation; (4) estimated cost avoidance to the Oregon taxpaying citizen for each cohort of drug court participants in the 2 years after their program participation; and (5) estimated cost avoidance to the County criminal justice system if the program were expanded to include an additional 200 clients. Two caveats to this cost analysis should be noted. First, some of the avoided system costs (e.g., jail space costs) are costs that a system may choose not to avoid. Second, because of research resource limits, these are cost estimates based on a “broad brush.” Nonetheless, these data provide policy makers general estimates of avoided costs that can help in planning program expansion or reallocation of resources. Notes, tables, references