NCJ Number
172247
Date Published
1998
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A pilot juvenile drug court diversion program established in Wilmington, Del., in 1995 under the Bureau of Justice Assistance Comprehensive Communities Program was evaluated by means of a comparison of youths who completed the program, youths who did not comply with the program, and a matched comparison group of similar offenders.
Abstract
The program included individual and group counseling, family counseling, and random urinalysis to youths with misdemeanor drug arrests and little criminal history. In addition, added efforts were made to keep youths in school and employed when appropriate. Routine progress reports and status hearings were maintained between the treatment staff and the family court. Success allowed youths to be diverted from further legal action; failure resulted in moving a case forward as a juvenile delinquency case. Recidivism was measured as rearrest. Results revealed that the drug court compliance group had significantly less frequent and severe criminal activity both during in the program and after 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Recidivism was at least 12 and as many as 20 percentage points lower than that of the comparison group. Thus, after 9 months, the successful drug court group had a recidivism rate of 23 percent, compared to 43 percent in the comparison group. Further, the drug court youths who did recidivate were arrested for less serious crimes than were those in the comparison groups. Results also revealed that inner-city black youths had lower success rates than others. Findings indicated that rearrest during treatment is a strong indicator of future criminal involvement and suggested the need to design more culturally specific programs aimed at increasing the success rate of black youth. Figures and tables