NCJ Number
104556
Date Published
1988
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This study guide accompanies a vidotape by the same title and discusses why and how to identify drug users among persons supervised by the criminal justice system. It considers who should be tested and reasons for not testing.
Abstract
Testing to identify drug users among those who have been arrested or are under the supervision of the criminal justice system targets active criminals, due to the relationship between crime and drug use; protects the public from crimes by persons released to the community; reduces jail or prison crowding by placing drug abusers in residential treatment programs; amd reduces drug abuse and crime by identifying those who need drug treatment. Testing also addresses public health problems and monitors community drug-use trends. Drug users can be identified through offenders' self-reports, criminal justice records, and urinalysis tests. Those who should be tested are arrestees, probationers and parolees, juvenile detainees, and female detainees. Challenges to drug testing are based on protection against illegal search and seizure and on due process rights. Compliance with due process rights rests on protections to ensure that the testing is accurate. See NCJ 104213 for videotape.