An Experimental Trial of Adaptive Programming in Drug Court: Outcomes at 6, 12 and 18 Months.

Objectives: Test whether an adaptive program improves outcomes in drug court by adjusting the schedule of court hearings and clinical case-management sessions pursuant to performance criteria.

Methods: Consenting participants in a misdemeanor drug court were randomly assigned to the adaptive program (n = 62) or to a baseline-matching condition (n = 63) in which they attended court hearings based on the results of a criminal risk assessment. Outcome measures were re-arrest rates at 18 months post-entry to the drug court and urine drug test results and structured interview results at 6 and 12 months post-entry.

Adaptive Programming Improves Outcomes in Drug Court: An Experimental Trial.

Prior studies in Drug Courts reported improved outcomes when participants were matched to schedules of judicial status hearings based on their criminological risk level. The current experiment determined whether incremental efficacy could be gained by periodically adjusting the schedule of status hearings and clinical case-management sessions in response to participants' ensuing performance in the program. The adjustments were made pursuant to a priori criteria specified in an adaptive algorithm.

Integrating substance abuse treatment and criminal justice supervision.

Proponents of a pure public safety perspective on the drug problem hold that drug-involved offenders require consistent and intensive supervision by criminal justice authorities in order to stay off drugs and out of trouble. In contrast, proponents of a thoroughgoing public health perspective commonly argue that clients perform better if they are left alone to develop an effective therapeutic alliance with counselors. Both may be correct, but with respect to different groups of offenders.

Matching Judicial Supervision to Clients' Risk Status in Drug Court.

This article reports outcomes from a program of experimental research evaluating the risk principle in drug courts. Prior studies revealed that participants who were high risk and had (a) antisocial personality disorder or (b) a prior history of drug abuse treatment performed better in drug court when scheduled to attend biweekly judicial status hearings in court. In contrast, participants who were low risk performed equivalently regardless of the court hearings schedule.

Internet access to Salvia divinorum: implications for policy, prevention, and treatment.

This study determined the degree to which Salvia divinorum, a potent hallucinogenic drug that is legal in most U.S. jurisdictions, is being proffered for sale over the Internet and how it is being characterized on popular Web sites.

Adapting judicial supervision to the risk level of drug offenders: discharge and 6-month outcomes from a prospective matching study.

This article reports recent findings from a program of experimental research examining the effects of adapting judicial supervision to the risk level of drug-abusing offenders. Prior studies revealed that high-risk participants with (1) antisocial personality disorder or (2) a history of drug abuse treatment performed significantly better in drug court when they were scheduled to attend frequent, bi-weekly judicial status hearings in court. Low-risk participants performed equivalently regardless of the schedule of court hearings.

Research on naltrexone in the criminal justice system.

Many parolees and probationers are opioid abusers, and substance abuse is a leading factor for the revocation of probation, parole, and other alternatives to incarceration. The opioid antagonist naltrexone would appear to be an excellent treatment for opioid abuse and dependence in this population and the authors sought to systematically review this literature. Using the PubMed database, the authors identified large bodies of criminal justice (CJS) and naltrexone literature.

Are judicial status hearings a "key component" of drug court? Six and twelve months outcomes.

Substantial evidence indicates that drug courts can be superior to traditional probation programs for enhancing treatment retention and reducing substance use and crime among drug offenders. Few studies have isolated the effects of the hypothesized "key components" of drug courts to determine their contributions to outcomes. This article presents outcomes at 6 and 12 months post-admission for misdemeanor drug court clients who were randomly assigned to different dosages of judicial status hearings.

Do research payments precipitate drug use or coerce participation?

Providing high-magnitude cash incentives to substance abuse clients to participate in research is frequently viewed as unethical based on the concerns that this might precipitate new drug use or be perceived as coercive. We randomly assigned consenting drug abuse outpatients to receive payments of 10 US dollars, 40 US dollars, or 70 US dollars in either cash or gift certificate for attending a 6-month research follow-up assessment. At the 6-month follow-up, participants received their randomly determined incentive and were then scheduled for a second follow-up appointment 3 days later to detect new instances of drug use.

Perceived deterrence and outcomes in drug court.

According to perceived-deterrence theory, the likelihood that an offender will engage in drug use or illegal activity is influenced by the perceived certainty of being detected for infractions or recognized for accomplishments, the perceived certainty of receiving sanctions for infractions or rewards for accomplishments, and the anticipated magnitude of the sanctions and rewards. This study evaluated drug court participants' perceived deterrence at monthly intervals during their enrollment in drug court. Exploratory cluster analysis (N=255) on the longitudinal scores yielded five subtypes of drug offenders characterized either by consistently elevated perceived-deterrence scores, consistently moderate scores, consistently low scores, increasing scores, or decreasing scores.

Estimating drug treatment needs among state prison inmates.

Growing prison populations in the U.S. are largely due to drug-related crime and drug abuse.

HIV risk behaviors, knowledge, and prevention education among offenders under community supervision: a hidden risk group.

Numerous studies have established that incarcerated populations are at substantial risk for HIV infection. In response, many jails and prisons have increased HIV prevention and related services. However, although twice as many offenders are under community supervision as are incarcerated at any given time, HIV prevention needs have been largely ignored among probationers and parolees, and little is known about their HIV risk behaviors or HIV prevention needs.

Drug policy by popular referendum: This, too, shall pass.

In formulating policies for drug offenders, lawmakers must decide concrete questions about such matters as legal jurisdiction, burdens of proof, and reporting of progress information. Although these decisions may seem incidental to treatment and beyond the purview of science, they are based on empirically testable assumptions about the behavior of drug abusers and have a direct bearing on the efficacy of drug treatment interventions. Unfortunately, these assumptions have generally not been subjected to empirical inquiry.

Day treatment for cocaine dependence: incremental utility over outpatient counseling and voucher incentives.

Urban, poor, crack cocaine-dependent clients were randomly assigned to outpatient addiction counseling (n=39) or day treatment (n=40). Participants in both conditions received equivalent individual cognitive-behavioral counseling and earned equivalent payment vouchers for providing cocaine-negative urine samples. However, day treatment participants attended significantly more psychoeducational and recreational groups and received two meals per day.

From telephone to office: intake attendance as a function of appointment delay.

In the present study, 116 clients calling an outpatient cocaine treatment clinic were randomly assigned to intake appointments scheduled either the same day, 1 day, 3 days, or 7 days later. Significantly more subjects scheduled 1 day later attended their intake appointments (72%), compared to those scheduled 3 days (41%) or 7 days (38%) later. Odds ratios indicate that subjects offered intake appointments approximately 24 h following their initial contact are more than four times as likely to attend their intakes as those scheduled later.

Does clinical case management improve outpatient addiction treatment.

This project evaluated whether clinical case managers (CCMs) could increase access and utilization of social services in the community; and thereby improve outcomes of addiction treatment. No case management (NoCM)--patients received standard, group-based, abstinence-oriented, outpatient drug abuse counseling, approximately twice weekly. Clinical case management (CCM)--patients were treated in the same programs but also were assigned a CCM who provided access to pre-contracted, support services such as drug free housing, medical care, legal referral, and parenting classes from community agencies.

Voluntary intoxication and criminal responsibility.

This paper reviews the law related to voluntary intoxication and criminal responsibility in the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, the US Virgin islands, and Puerto Rico. Statutory and case law citations are provided which govern the use of intoxication evidence in each jurisdiction to negate mens rea (i.e.