NCJ Number
238729
Date Published
July 2011
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This report from the Iowa Department of Human Rights, Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning, presents information on extended recidivism outcomes for the State's adult and juvenile drug courts.
Abstract
Highlights from this report on extended recidivism outcomes in Iowa adult courts include the following: female drug court participants tended to have lower recidivism rates than male participants; non-White drug court participants did not have better long-term outcomes than the comparison groups; judge model drug courts tended to be more effective than community panel courts; and drug court participants who graduate tend to have lower recidivism over time than do non-graduates. Findings on extended recidivism outcomes in the State's juvenile drug courts include the following: participants tended to have poorer long-term outcomes than the comparison groups; the cohort with the lowest recidivism was the consent decree cohort; the difference between White and minority participants was not as marked as that of adult drug court participants, although White participants did have lower recidivism rates; and long-term recidivism rates did not vary significantly by drug court model. This report presents the results of a longitudinal study of Iowa drug court participants and comparison groups that examined whether adult drug court participants continued to have lower recidivism rates over time as compared to juvenile drug court participants, especially as they moved into the adult court system. Data for the study were obtained from earlier study databases, as well as criminal justice data from the Iowa Courts Information System, the State's Computerized Criminal History system, the State's Corrections Offender Network, and the Interstate Identification Index. The findings indicate that recidivism outcomes for juvenile drug court participants do not improve as they move into adult drug courts. Tables and figures