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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:03 pm
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Results for drug courts (vermont, u.s.)
2 results foundAuthor: Wicklund, Peter Title: Washington County Treatment Court: Outcome Evaluation Summary: In 2002, under Act 128, the Vermont Legislature established a pilot project to create drug court initiatives and begin implementing drug courts in three Vermont counties -- Rutland, Chittenden, and Bennington. Since the establishment of these drug courts, and the initial indications of their efficacy, additional Vermont counties have started drug court programs. The Washington County Treatment Court began official operation in September of 2006. It was established as a pilot program for combating drug crimes, not only drug possession, but drug-related crimes, both misdemeanors and felonies, such as retail theft, burglaries, and grand larceny. Offenders identified as drug-addicted are referred to the court by law enforcement, probation officers and attorneys and put into a treatment program whose goal is to reduce drug dependency and improve the quality of life for offenders and their families. In most cases, after their successful completion of drug court, the original charges are dismissed or reduced. The benefits to society include reduced recidivism by the drug court participants, leading to increased public safety and reduced costs to taxpayers. Details: Northfield Falls, VT: Vermont Center for Justice Research, 2013. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 2, 2013 at: http://www.vcjr.org/reports/reportscrimjust/reports/wctcreport_files/WCTC%20Outcome%20Eval%20Rpt.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.vcjr.org/reports/reportscrimjust/reports/wctcreport_files/WCTC%20Outcome%20Eval%20Rpt.pdf Shelf Number: 128187 Keywords: Drug Courts (Vermont, U.S.)Drug OffendersProblem-Solving CourtsRecidivism |
Author: Wicklund, Peter Title: Rutland County Treatment Court: Outcome Evaluation Summary: In 2002, under Act 128 the Vermont legislature established a pilot project to create drug court initiatives and begin implementing drug courts in three Vermont counties: Rutland, Chittenden, and Bennington. The Rutland County Treatment Court (hereafter, the “RTC”) was one of the drug courts established by Act 128, and began operating in January 2004. It was established as a pilot program for combating drug crimes, not just possession, but drug-related crimes such as retail theft, burglaries, grand larceny – both misdemeanors and felonies. Offenders identified as drug-addicted are referred to the court by law enforcement, probation officers, and attorneys and put into a treatment program that will reduce drug dependency and improve the quality of life for themselves and their families. In most cases, after their successful completion of drug court, the original charges are dismissed or charges are reduced. The benefits to society include reduced recidivism by the drug court participants, leading to increased public safety and reduced costs to taxpayers. An outcome evaluation attempts to determine the effects that a program has on participants. In the case of RTC, the objective of this outcome evaluation was to determine the extent to which the RTC reduced recidivism among program participants. An indicator of post-program criminal behavior that is commonly used in outcome evaluations of criminal justice programs is the number of participants who recidivate -- that is, are convicted of a crime after they complete the program. An analysis of the criminal history records of the 165 subjects who were referred to and accepted into the RTC from January 6, 2004 to February 7, 2012, was conducted using the Vermont criminal history record of participants as provided by the Vermont Criminal Information Center at the Department of Public Safety. The Vermont criminal history record on which the recidivism analysis was based included all charges and convictions prosecuted in a Vermont Superior Court – Criminal Division that were available as of April 24, 2012. The criminal records on which the study was based do not contain Federal prosecutions, out-of-state prosecutions, or traffic tickets. SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS 1. The RTC appears to be a promising approach for reducing recidivism among participants who completed the program. People who graduated from the RTC had a recidivism rate of 35.4% which is significantly less than the recidivism rate of 54.0% for participants who were terminated or withdrew from the RTC. 2. The research showed that significantly more graduates of the RTC (84.6%) remained conviction-free for the first year after leaving the program, compared to the subjects who were unsuccessful in completing the RTC (69%). 3. The RTC appears to be a promising approach for reducing the number and severity of post-RTC reconvictions for participants who complete the RTC. The reconviction rate for the successful RTC participants was almost half the rate for the participants that were unsuccessful (109 compared to 226 reconvictions per 100, respectively). RTC graduates also had significantly fewer felony reconvictions than did the subjects that did not complete the RTC. 4. The RTC recidivists tended to commit post-project crime in Rutland County. For the total study group, 84% of new convictions were prosecuted in Rutland County. 5. The reduced recidivism rates observed for the graduates of the RTC compared with the subjects who were unsuccessful in completing the program were most likely due to the benefits of the RTC rather than due to differences in demographic, criminal history, or base charge characteristics of the study segments. 6. An investigation into the demographic and criminal history characteristics of the RTC participants showed correlations between base docket sentencing severity and type, and tendency to recidivate. However, the correlations were not strong enough to result in a useful model that could be used as a predictor of recidivism. Details: Northfield Falls, VT: Vermont Center for Justice Research, 2013. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 2, 2013 at: http://www.vcjr.org/reports/reportscrimjust/reports/RTCreport_files/RTC%20Outcome%20Eval%20Rpt.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.vcjr.org/reports/reportscrimjust/reports/RTCreport_files/RTC%20Outcome%20Eval%20Rpt.pdf Shelf Number: 128189 Keywords: Drug Courts (Vermont, U.S.)Drug OffendersDrug TreatmentProblem-Solving CourtsRecidivism |