This study evaluates the safety and effectiveness of diverting felony drug offenders to residential treatment.
The Kings County District Attorney’s Office (Brooklyn, NY) initiated the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison program (DTAP) to divert to residential drug treatment nonviolent drug-addicted offenders who are bound for prison. The goal of DTAP is to treat offenders in community-based facilities without endangering public safety and to decrease their recidivism following treatment. Among 487 comparable defendants, 4 percent of DTAP participants were rearrested during treatment, whereas 13 percent of nonparticipants were rearrested during the pretrial and sentence periods. Of DTAP completers, 23 percent were rearrested during the 3-year period following treatment completion, which was less than half the rate for DTAP failures and nonparticipants. The study concludes that, when appropriate screening and monitoring procedures are implemented, diverting drug felons to residential treatment is at least as safe as traditional prosecution and sentencing, and that successful completion of treatment is much more effective in reducing recidivism than completion of traditional sentences. Tables, figures, notes, references