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NCJ Number:
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NCJ 205002
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Title:
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Evaluation of Breaking the Cycle
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Author(s):
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Adele Harrell ; Ojmarrh Mitchell ; Jeffrey Merrill ; Douglas Marlowe
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Corporate Author:
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The Urban Institute
United States
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Date Published:
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02/2003 |
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Page Count:
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153 |
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Sponsoring Agency:
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Grant Number:
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97-IJ-CX-0013 |
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Sale Source:
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The Urban Institute
2100 M Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037
United States
NCJRS Photocopy Services
Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849-6000
United States |
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Document:
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PDF |
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Agency Summary:
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Agency Summary |
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Dataset:
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03928 |
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Type:
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Program/project evaluations |
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Language:
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English |
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Country:
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United States |
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Annotation:
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This report presents the methodology and findings of the
evaluation of the Breaking the Cycle (BTC) demonstration
projects, which tested the feasibility and impact of systemwide
intervention to reduce drug use among offenders by identifying
and intervening with drug-involved felony defendants. |
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Abstract:
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BTC demonstration projects were conducted in Birmingham, AL;
Jacksonville, FL; and Tacoma, WA, between 1997 and 2001.
Under BTC, all adult felony defendants were ordered to report to
BTC for drug screening as a condition of pretrial release. Those
who reported drug use, tested positive for drugs, or were
arrested on drug felony charges were placed in drug testing and,
when appropriate, referred to drug treatment or drug education
classes. The key system reforms instituted under the BTC model
were early intervention, judicial oversight, graduated sanctions
and incentives, and collaboration among justice and treatment
agencies. The process evaluation goals were to assess the
feasibility of BTC as a model, identify the strategies developed
and lessons learned at the sites regarding systemwide responses
to drug use, and document the services delivered as a basis for
understanding the impact evaluation outcomes. Data for the
process evaluation were collected from interviews with staff of
collaborating agencies, weekly conference calls with site project
directors, computerized information systems of participating
agencies, and monthly reports on project activities. The impact
evaluation tested the general hypothesis that BTC would reduce
drug use, crime, and drug-related problems among offenders.
Changes in case processing during BTC were also examined. The
impact evaluation was based on a quasi-experimental comparison of
defendants in BTC with samples of similar defendants arrested in
the year before BTC implementation. Results of the impact
evaluation were used to estimate the return on investment in BTC.
The process evaluation found that BTC implementation fell short
of the ideal in all three demonstration sites, which made clear
the difficulties of coordinating efforts to reduce drug use among
all drug-involved felony defendants released to the community
while their cases are pending. Process lessons for the future
pertain to strategies for identifying and responding to a range
of substance abuse problems, the data infrastructure required to
track the progress of individuals as they have contact with
multiple agencies, and issues in managing interagency
collaboration across justice and treatment agencies. The impact
evaluation confirmed the benefits of BTC strategies, even when
imperfectly implemented. Efforts to reduce drug use among all
felony defendants under supervision in the community did produce
gains in public safety. Extensive tables and figures, 71
references, and appended information on impact evaluation
methodology; changes in case handling, disposition, and
sentencing in the evaluation samples; and composite scale
properties |
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Main Term(s):
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Drug prevention programs |
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Index Term(s):
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Felony ; Drug treatment ; Effectiveness of crime preventn prgs ; Pretrial drug testing ; NIJ grant-related documents ; Florida ; Washington ; Alabama |
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Note:
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Dataset may be archived by the NIJ Data Resources Program at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data |
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To cite this abstract, use the following link:
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=205002
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* A link to the full-text document is provided whenever possible. For documents
not available online, a link to the publisher's web site is provided.
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