Some Police Executives' Perceptions of Drug Treatment Diversion Programs as Alternatives to Incarceration for First Time Offenders

• NCJ Number: 137692
• Author(s): N C Daly; G B Mitchell
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: St Petersburg Police Dept
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The St. Petersburg Police Department was interested in gauging support for drug treatment diversion programs among police executives, and a short survey was administered to police chiefs in agencies of comparable size to the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Abstract

The survey sample was generated by identifying municipal police departments in the United States with total sworn personnel ranging from 250 to 1,000. A total of 116 comparable agencies were identified and included in the sample; 63 responses were received from police chiefs, a response rate of 54 percent. Survey objectives were to measure the level of support among police executives for drug treatment diversion programs, to measure perceptions of the impact that successful treatment of drug offenders would have on criminal activity, to define the population felt to be most appropriate for placement in drug treatment diversion programs, to explore benefits of drug treatment compared to incarceration, and to identify key issues in the development of drug treatment diversion programs. There was strong support among police chiefs in every area of the country for drug treatment programs into which first-time offenders can be diverted in lieu of incarceration. Respondents clearly stated that incarceration is not an effective deterrent to future crime or drug use. They also indicated that the successful completion of drug treatment programs by drug offenders would lead to at least some reduction of criminal activity in their areas. Critical issues most frequently identified by respondents were strict sanctions for failure to comply with program conditions, funding, accountability, criteria for selecting treatment participants, outpatient aftercare and client monitoring, program evaluation, community acceptance, and professional staff availability. Respondents felt that the solution to the drug problem involves a three-pronged approach: education (prevention), demand reduction (treatment), and enforcement (criminal sanctions). 15 references and 1 table