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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Ind. Courts - "Statistics support Drug Court"

The Evansville Courier & Press reports:

Last year, the Indiana Judicial Center hired a research group to evaluate five adult drug courts in the state. Among those, the group studied participants who entered Vanderburgh County's Day Reporting Drug Court from April 2002 to June 2005. That group was compared to a group charged with crimes eligible for drug court but that never participated.

The results of those research efforts were made available this month. In summary, the study found the local program was successful in decreasing participant drug abuse, reducing recidivism and producing cost savings for taxpayers.

Significant findings included:

  • Participants in the local program were less likely to reoffend than offenders who were eligible for the program but did not participate. Regardless of graduation status, drug court participants were 33 percent less likely to have had any arrests in the 24-month follow-up period compared to their peers.
  • Measured by percentage of positive urine drug screens, participants consistently showed less drug use than the comparison group.
  • Over a two-year period, the local program saved taxpayers $281,764.
Here is the Indiana Courts Drug Courts website. The ILB is checking for the location of the statistics cited.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 8, 2007 08:21 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts