# Presentation: 507753

## Painting the Current Picture:

**A National Report Card on Drug Courts and Other Problem-Solving Courts in the United States**
**C. West Huddleston**
**Hon. Karen Freeman-Wilson**
**Donna Boone, Ph.D.**
**Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice**

## Painting the Current Picture:  A National Report Card

- To present the latest information regarding the impact of Drug Courts as stated in the current literature
*and*
- To provide an aggregate summary of survey results from each state regarding the number and type of problem-solving court programs in operation nationally

## Judge as Problem-Solver

- “Effective trial courts are responsive to emergent public issues such as drug abuse...A trial court that moves deliberately in response to emergent issues is a stabilizing force in society and acts consistently with its role of maintaining the rule of law”
-                               Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Trial Court Performance Standards, 1997

## 
Drug Courts:  
A National Phenomenon

**Drug Courts:  **
**A National Phenomenon**

## Number of Drug Courts

| 1989 | 1 |
| --- | --- |
| 1990 | 1 |
| 1991 | 5 |
| 1992 | 10 |
| 1993 | 19 |
| 1994 | 40 |
| 1995 | 75 |
| 1996 | 139 |
| 1997 | 230 |
| 1998 | 347 |
| 1999 | 472 |
| 2000 | 665 |
| 2001 | 847 |
| 2002 | 1,048 |
| 2003 | 1,183 |

## 2004 Drug Court Activity

**1,183 drug courts in operation**
**625 actively planning**

## Drug Court Activity

**1,183 drug courts in operation**** **
*666 Adult Drug Courts *
*268 Juvenile Drug Courts *
*112 Family Dependency Treatment Courts *
*42 DUI/Drug Courts*
*52 Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts*
*42 Reentry Drug Courts *
*1 Campus Drug Court*

## Benefits of Drug Court

## Belenko (1998; 2001)

***“******drug courts provide the most comprehensive and effective control of drug-using offenders’ criminality and drug usage while under the court’s supervision.”***

## Marlowe, DeMatteo, Festinger (2003)

***“******To put it bluntly, we know that drug courts outperform virtually all other strategies that have been attempted for drug-involved offenders.”***

## Benefits of Drug Court:

**Drug Courts Reduce  **
**Criminal Involvement**

## National Research

**2020 Graduates from 95 Drug Courts**
**Representing ****17,000 Graduates**
**1 Year Post Graduation:  16.4%**
**2 Years Post Graduation:  27.5%**
- 					                              Roman, Townsend & Bhati, 2003

## National Research

*  *
***“******The body of literature on recidivism is ***
***now strong enough to conclude that completing a drug court program reduces the likelihood of further involvement in the ***
***criminal justice system.”***
- 						                                   Vera:  Fluellen & Trone, 2000

## Statewide Research

***“******Rearrest rate among 18,000  drug offenders who had completed drug court throughout New York state was, on average, 29 percent lower (13% to 47%) over three years than comparison group.”***
- 							                               Repel, et. al., 2003

## Benefits of Drug Court:

**Drug Courts Save Money**

## Drug Courts Save Money

***“******A state taxpayer’s return on the upfront investment in drug courts ***
***is substantial.”***
***”******a county’s investment in drug ***
***court pays off.”***

## Statewide Research

**“****New York Statewide Drug Court System saved*****  $254 Million in three years”***
***	******	******	******	******	******	******         *****Rempel et al, 2003**

## Statewide Research

***“******The average drug court participant produces $6,779 in benefits with $3,759 in avoided criminal justice costs paid by taxpayers and $3,020 in avoided costs to victims.”***
*	**	**	**    *
*                                                                             *Washington State Institute for Public Policy, 2003

## Statewide Research

***“******California drug courts demonstrate a savings of 18 million per year.  A 14 million investment returned 43.3 million in savings over two years.”***
-                                                                            Judicial Council of California 2002;
-                                                            NPC Research & Judicial Council of California 2002

## Local Research

***“******In St. Louis, MO, each drug court graduate cost the city $2,615 less than those on probation alone.  The savings were realized in higher wages and related taxes paid, as well as lower costs for health care and mental health services.”***
-                                                                                                          Institute for Applied Research, 2004

## Local Research

***“******For every dollar spent on drug court in Multnomah County, Oregon, ten dollars were saved.”***
- 						                                  Finigan, 1998
***“******A total savings to the local taxpayer over a thirty-month period was $5,071.57 or a savings of $1,521,471 per year.”***
*	**	**	**	**	**	**                                  *Carey & Finigan, 2003

## Local Research

***“******For every dollar spent on drug court in Dallas, Texas, $9.43 in tax dollars was realized over a forty-month period.”***
-                                                                                            Fomby & Rangaprasad, 2002

## Benefits of Drug Courts

** ****Drug Courts Increase Retention in Treatment**

## Treatment Research Findings

**The length of time a patient spent in treatment was a reliable predictor of his or her post treatment performance**.
- 	Beyond a ninety-day threshold, treatment outcomes improved in a direct relationship to the length of time spent in treatment, with one year generally found to be the minimum effective duration of treatment.
**Coerced patients tended to stay longer**.   This was in light of the finding that most of the legally coerced addicts had more crime and gang involvement, more drug use, and worse employment records than their non-coerced counterparts.

**Notes:**
So if time in treatment is the most reliable predictor, and coerced patients stay longer, the key to effective treatment is a system or environment that supports treatment and actively monitors the participant’s ongoing treatment progress

Thus, The Drug Court Model 

##  Retention in Treatment

***“******Drug Courts exceed these abysmal projections”... “This represents a six-fold increase in treatment retention over most previous efforts.”***
*                                             *Marlowe, Dematteo, & Festinger, 2003

##  
67-71% of those who begin Drug Court are successfully discharged/graduate

**67-71% of those who begin Drug Court are successfully discharged/graduate**

## Drug Court Permutations

**“****Problem Solving in the Courts: Taking the Model to Other Populations”**

## National Resolutions

**“****Continued development of problem-solving courts” **
**                                                ****American Bar Association, 2001**
**“****To take steps nationally and locally to expand the methods and principles of well-functioning drug courts into ongoing court operations”**
**        ****Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of Court Administrators, 2000**

## Defining Problem-Solving Courts

- Adult Drug Courts
- Juvenile Drug Courts
- Family Dependency Treatment Courts
- DWI/Drug Courts
- Reentry Drug Courts
- Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts
- Campus Drug Courts
- Community Courts
- Mental Health Courts
- Teen Courts
- Domestic Violence Courts

## Aggregate Number of Problem-Solving Courts in the U.S.

- DWI/DUID Courts – 42
- Teen Courts – 255
- Mental Health Courts - 59
- Domestic Violence Courts – 79
- Community Courts - 15
- Reentry Courts – 11
- Campus Drug Courts - 1
- Other-65*
- *Prostitution Courts, Parole Violation Courts, Homeless Courts, Truancy Courts, Child Support Courts, etc.

## Number & Type of Operational Problem-Solving Court Programs in the United States

1,667

**1,667**

## 
Aiming to Solve the Problems of the People Who Come Before the Courts is

Work Worth Doing!

**Aiming to Solve the Problems of the People Who Come Before the Courts is**
**Work Worth Doing!**

## For a copy of the full document,
“Painting the Current Picture” go to www.ndci.org 

**“****Painting the Current Picture” go to **_[www.ndci.org](http://www.ndci.org/)__ _