NCJ Number
218095
Date Published
2008
Length
108 pages
Annotation
This report highlights aspects of the Queensland drug court’s operation and presents data on recidivism outcomes for those who are successful and unsuccessful in their effort to become drug-free and crime-free.
Abstract
The recidivism findings confirm earlier drug-court research, which found that those who graduate from the drug court program have significantly improved criminal justice outcomes compared to those who are terminated from the program and/or those who were otherwise imprisoned. Two years of recidivism data show that 59 percent of those who graduated from the drug court had been reconvicted of a new offense within 2 years; the first postgraduate offense occurred after an average of 379 days. Seventy-seven of those terminated from the program had been reconvicted within 2 years of their release from prison, with the average time to first offense being 139 days. Graduates committed an average of 0.61 offenses every 6 months after their graduation, an 80-percent decrease compared to the 12 months prior to their entry into the drug-court program. Those terminated from the program committed an average of 1.38 offenses every 6 months after being released from prison, 63 percent lower than their rate of offending in the 12 months prior to drug-court participation. Findings show that 70 percent of graduates committed a new offense while participating in the program. Most of these offenses involved failure to comply with one or more aspects of their drug-court order. In the 6 years since the drug court started, 1,361 offenders have been referred to the program, and 758 offenders have been accepted into the program. A total of 183 offenders have successfully completed the program; 402 have been terminated. More than half of all participants have absconded at least once while in the drug-court program. A total of 23,536 court appearances have been conducted. 27 figures, 28 tables, 19 references, and appended description of methodology