Comparing the Performance of Drug Court with an Alternative

• Activity Number: 645
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 13, 2015 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): David Schwager* and Jessica Wyse
• Companies: Multnomah County Department of Community Justice and Multnomah County Department of Community Justice
• Keywords: criminal justice ; drug court ; matching ; regression models

Abstract

Drug courts have been found to be highly effective at reducing recidivism in criminally-involved individuals whose behaviors are largely fueled by addiction. However, there is limited research on whether drug courts are uniquely effective at reducing recidivism or if other programs can obtain similar outcomes. We examine an alternative that provides similar high-intensity services (such as medication-assisted treatment, counseling, and mentorship) under the supervision of a traditional probation officer, rather than a formal judicial setting. We compare this alternative's performance to a more traditional drug court on several outcome measures using one-to-one nearest neighbor matching and regression models to control for covariates, and find the two programs perform equally well. We then attempt to determine if there are certain types of offenders who have better outcomes in one program or the other.