The authors of this paper report on their efforts to clarify the challenges faced by drug court participants, and the relationship of those challenges to graduation status; the paper lays out the research methodology and findings, and indicates that the expected factors of social support systems and mental health struggles were less of a barrier to graduation than anticipated but that COVID-19 treatment barriers were significantly related to graduation status.
To better understand the struggles that drug court participants face, and their relationship to graduation status, the authors took freehand notes during observations of staff meetings (N = 119) and court dockets (N = 147) and used thematic analysis to examine the notations. Themes included participants’ ongoing mental and physical health issues, legal issues outside of drug court, experience with both prosocial and antisocial relationships, drug use by family and friends, and a variety of treatment barriers even in a program designed to mitigate these. They expected ongoing legal issues outside of drug court, physical and mental health struggles, and family and friends being supportive, or not, to be related to graduation but they were not. However, COVID-19 and treatment barriers were significantly related to graduation status. Results add to the scholarly literature, especially that focusing on justice and court processes post-COVID-19, and can assist practitioners in understanding what factors may need more attention and resources. (Published Abstract Provided)