Without some measure of heavy use, the high risks among the roughly 60 percent of arrestees who test positive for an illicit substance appear indistinguishable from low risks for purposes of predicting their behavior if released. While this study did not explore the use of pretrial drug testing to identify arrestees in need of treatment and to see that they receive that treatment under judicial authority, the researchers cited this as one justification for such testing. Local judges, prosecutors, policymakers, and pretrial release program administrators. When considering a defendant for pretrial release, a judge must decide whether there is a significant probability that releasing the person before the trial will pose a danger to the public. Testing for drugs during pretrial processing may help a judge to decide whether to order supervised release, continued drug testing, drug treatment, or detention until trial.
Drug testing is expensive, however.
This Research in Brief summarizes the study methods and key findings and offers an analysis of the data. The Washington, D.C., adult pretrial release program was the prototype for programs designed for juvenile arrestees in the District of Columbia and for defendants in Prince George's County, Milwaukee County, and Maricopa County. For these programs, the courts received urine test results and randomly assigned several releasees to experimental postrelease supervision programs. Researchers also used data in Washington, D.C., collected after the experimental phase of the project. This test did not determine if rates were higher or lower, only if they were different.