Posted: Monday, March 2, 2015

In 2012, the Minnesota Judicial Branch released the first comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of Minnesota’s drug courts. The groundbreaking study, which compared 535 drug court participants to similar offenders who experienced traditional court processes over two-and-a-half years, found that drug courts significantly reduced recidivism, improved community outcomes, and reduced incarceration and related costs for drug court participants.

Today, the Minnesota Judicial Branch released a follow-up to that 2012 evaluation, which tracked the progress of the same drug court participants and similar offenders over an additional year-and-a-half. The new evaluation found that drug court participants – now four years removed from their entry into a drug court program – continued to show significantly lower recidivism rates and reduced incarceration costs.

“When we first saw the results of our 2012 drug court evaluation, we were thrilled to see the real impact that Minnesota’s drug courts were having on some of the most high-risk drug offenders in the state,” said Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Shaun Floerke, co-chair of the Drug Court Initiative Advisory Committee. “At that time, we decided that we also needed to continue monitoring the progress of these drug court participants, to learn whether these improved outcomes were sustainable in the long-term. Thanks to this new evaluation, we are now able to see the long-lasting impact drug courts have on the lives of participants, and the real benefits drug courts provide to our communities.”

According to the newly-released follow-up evaluation:

Drug Court participants continue to have a significantly lower rate of recidivism: Comparing offenders who spent similar amounts of time outside of incarceration (“at-risk time”) during the evaluation period, the new study shows drug court participants consistently had significantly lower recidivism rates. For example, among those offenders who reached four years of “at-risk time” during the evaluation, 28% of drug court participants had received a new conviction, compared to 41% of non-drug court participants.

Drug Court participants spent fewer days incarcerated: Drug court participants spent, on average, 74 fewer days incarcerated in jail or prison compared to similar offenders during the four-year evaluation period. The average cost savings for each drug court participant was $4,288 as a result of this reduced incarceration.

Drug courts are specialized, problem-solving court programs that target non-violent criminal offenders who suffer from addiction to alcohol or other drugs. The programs involve close collaboration between judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, treatment providers, probation officers, law enforcement, educational and vocational experts, and community leaders. Through this collaboration, drug courts closely monitor a defendant's progress toward sobriety and recovery through ongoing treatment, frequent drug testing, and regular mandatory check-in court appearances. The programs use a range of immediate sanctions and incentives to foster behavior change.

In the past year, the Minnesota Judicial Council approved the establishment of nine new drug court programs in the state. This includes six new drug courts funded in part by an increased appropriation from the Minnesota Legislature, as well as three new DWI Courts funded through a grant from the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety. Minnesota now has 50 operational drug courts.

The newly-released follow-up evaluation and the original 2012 Minnesota Statewide Adult Drug Court Evaluation  are available in the Publications and Reports section of the Minnesota Judicial Branch Website at http://www.mncourts.gov/?page=519.