Although juvenile drug courts (JDCs) have now been in operation for 17 years, there is still no definitive appraisal as to this model's cost effectiveness and in particular, no detailed cost analysis of a JDC program following the 16 strategies until this one. The cost data presented in this paper build on the process and outcome evaluations performed on the Clackamas County Juvenile Drug Court (CCJDC). The criminal justice costs incurred by participants in drug court are compared with the costs incurred by eligible non‐participants. CCJDC participants had far more positive outcomes than those who did not participate in the program. In the two years after drug court entry, CCJDC participants cost the taxpayers $961 less per participant than similar individuals who did not attend the drug court program.
In 2008, San Joaquin County, California, implemented a system change where all repeat Driving Under the Influence (DUI) offenders in the largest judicial district (mainly the City of Stockton) are required to participate in a DUI Monitoring Court program. The program follows a behavioral triage system where offenders are placed into one of two tracks. Track 1 (monitoring) is a less intensive system where participants are required to come to court infrequently to report on progress in completing the terms of their probation, including Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) requirements, to qualify to get their license returned. Track 2 is for participants who demonstrate through their behavior (i.e., behavioral triage) that they are unable to comply with Track 1 requirements and who are assessed as needing drug and alcohol treatment. Track 2 follows a drug court model. All repeat DUI offenders convicted after 2008 (i.e., program participants) and a comparison group of all repeat DUI offenders convicted in the 2 years prior to program implementation were tracked for 18 months from the time of their DUI conviction. DMV data were used to examine new DUI convictions and traffic accidents for both groups. The results showed that program participants had significantly fewer new DUI convictions, accidents related to drug and alcohol consumption, and accidents resulting in injury. Participants were also significantly more likely to comply with court, probation, and DMV requirements, and to regain their
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