Drug courts work, the GAO says in a new report.
The Government Accountability Office reviewed evaluations of adult drug courts, and found that “drug-court program participation was generally associated with lower recidivism.” The GAO stated that:
“…analysis of evaluations reporting recidivism data for 32 programs showed that drug-court program participants were generally less likely to be re-arrested than comparison group members drawn from criminal court, with differences in likelihood reported to be statistically significant for 18 of the programs.”
There are currently over 2,500 drug courts operating nationwide, of which about 1,400 handle adults. Typically, they involve defendants waiving a right to trial and entering treatment programs. In one study cited by GAO, participants in a Sacramento Drug Court were 20 percent less likely to be rearrested within two years of their participation than drug users handled through conventional courts.
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