Program Profile: Suffolk County (N.Y.) Drug Treatment Court

This program is an alternative to incarceration for drug-abusing defendants, which provides substance abuse treatment and education, case management, and intensive supervision. The program is rated Effective. Treatment group participants had a statistically significant lower likelihood of recidivating and experienced a greater length of time between initial arrest and first rearrest, compared with the comparison group.

An Effective rating implies that implementing the program is likely to result in the intended outcome(s).

Program Goals/Target Population

The Suffolk County Drug Treatment Court is an alternative to incarceration for drug-abusing defendants facing a broad range of charges, including misdemeanors and felonies, in Suffolk County, New York. The drug court program provides substance abuse treatment and education, as well as case management and intensive supervision, for defendants arrested for drug and non-drug charges, as long as there is an underlying addiction problem.

Defendants charged with misdemeanor or felony offenses are eligible to participate in the drug court program. Defendants with prior felony convictions, as well as defendants who only use marijuana or who require methadone maintenance, can also be accepted into the program. Defendants are ineligible to participate if they are charged with a felony-level drug sale or charged for the most severe A–1 and A–2 level drug felonies.

Following arraignment, staff from the Division of Community Mental Hygiene/Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (DCMH/ASAS) screen potential participants for addiction and treatment readiness. The drug court program does not accept defendants that are only addicted to alcohol; participants must demonstrate a drug addiction problem. If the clinical assessment shows a defendant is eligible for the program, they are given the option to enter. Defendants who choose not to participate continue through the normal criminal justice process. Those who are eligible and decide to participate plead guilty to the charges and immediately become program participants.

Program Components/Key Personnel

The Suffolk County Drug Treatment court uses a postplea model, which means participants plead guilty to an eligible charge before beginning the program. Upon entering the program, participants agree to a fixed jail or prison sentence that is imposed in the event of drug court failure. For example, participants charged with misdemeanors are generally given a 6-month alternative sentence, while participants charged with felonies are given a 1-year jail alternative sentence. Upon graduation, misdemeanor charges are dismissed or reduced to a violation, while felony charges are reduced to a misdemeanor. The alternative sentence length is only changed in the event of a new arrest or warrant issued during drug court participation, which may lead to a longer sentence.

All drug court participants agree to the same treatment mandates. They agree to at least 12 months of participation in the program, with at least 6 months of that time spent drug free. There are no formalized phases of treatment through which participants must progress to successfully complete the program. Rather, participants are assigned to one of five treatment modalities, which can range from the most restrictive residential assignment to the least restrictive, once-a-week outpatient assignment. Treatment assignment is based in part on the DCMH/ASAS assessment, as well as several other factors, such as drug use and treatment history, availability of a drug- and alcohol-free home environment, employment status, and the existence of support networks for participants. All participants are usually initially assigned to outpatient treatment. More restrictive inpatient treatment is reserved for participants that fail to follow the program or treatment requirements. Similar to other drug courts, as the participants in the Suffolk Drug Treatment Court meet the goals and requirements of the program, the level of treatment supervision may be diminished.

Probation officers (POs) provide case management services to participants assigned to outpatient treatment. Case managers from Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC), a nonprofit agency used by other drug courts in New York State, monitors participants assigned to inpatient treatment. POs meet regularly with participants to track their progress, coordinate services, and administer a urinalysis to test for drug use. POs also visit participants at home and recommend changes to a participant’s treatment modality when necessary. POs do not play a therapeutic role. Rather, they encourage participants when they are in compliance, or take on a more disciplinary role when participants are noncompliant.

In addition to meeting regularly with their case managers, program participants are also required to appear before the drug court judge. During court appearances, the judge engages participants in a conversation about their progress. Case managers are also present during the proceedings and report to the judge on participants’ treatment accomplishments or problems. The case managers also inform the judge about the results of the drug screening taken upon arrival to the courthouse.

The drug court uses a system of rewards and sanctions for compliant and noncompliant behavior. Rewards and sanctions for participants are decided on a case-by-case basis, based on a participant’s individual needs and background. Compliant behavior of program participants can be rewarded by reduced court appearances. Unlike other drug court programs, there is no formalized sanctions schedule for noncompliant behavior. Sanctions can include additional court appearances and increased treatment levels. There is also always the risk of jail time.

To graduate, participants must meet treatment requirements as well as participate in a constructive activity outside of treatment, such as employment, school, training, or volunteering. Participants who fail the program usually do so because of persistent noncompliance, a new arrest, or by voluntarily opting out. In the event of program failure, the jail or prison sentence is imposed and the case is returned to the usual criminal justice proceedings in the narcotics part of court.

Study 1

Rempel and colleagues (2003) used a quasi-experimental design to compare the recidivism rates of participants in the Suffolk County (NY) Drug Treatment Court to the recidivism rates of defendants arrested on similar charges in the year before the drug court opened (in September 1996).

The drug court group included 234 program participants who had at least 2 years of postarrest recidivism data available for analysis. Even though the drug treatment court program accepts defendants with non-drug charges, these participants were not included in the sample. The initial comparison group included 676 defendants arrested in the year preceding the opening of the court who had top charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree (misdemeanor) or criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree (felony). Seventy percent of the comparison group had been arrested for a misdemeanor and 30 percent had been arrested for a felony.

A propensity score matching process was used to eliminate or reduce the differences between the drug court group and comparison group. The matching process resulted in 232 drug court participants matched to 169 comparison defendants. The drug court group was 70 percent male, and 59 percent white, 30 percent African American, and 11 percent Hispanic/“other,” with an average age of 29.5 years. The comparison group was 76 percent male, and 54 percent white, 35 percent African American, and 11 percent Hispanic/“other,” with an average age of 29.3 years. There were no significant differences between the groups, except on one variable: the drug court group was less likely to have a prior misdemeanor conviction on their past record.

Recidivism data was obtained from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. The data set provided comprehensive criminal record information, including criminal history and recidivism, as of June 30, 2002. Recidivism was defined as a new arrest that leads to conviction. The analysis looked at recidivism over postarrest and postprogram time periods. The postarrest time period begins at the time of the arrest that either led to drug court participation or comparison group membership. The postprogram period begins at different starting points for study participants: For drug court graduates, the postprogram period begins on the graduation date. For drug court failures, the period begins on the estimated release date from jail or prison. For comparison group members, the period begins on the estimated release date (or, if there was no incarceration sentence, on the disposition date).

There were, however, methodological limitations when examining recidivism over the postprogram time period: a portion of the drug court group has not achieved the requisite year of postprogram time, for two reasons. First, it takes drug court participants 1 year to complete the program and another year of postprogram time before the analysis can be done. Second, program participants who fail are usually sentenced to 1 year in jail, and the postprogram count does not begin until their release. There are also a number of participants who had not reached final status (graduation or failure) as of the analysis date. Therefore, the final status of drug court participants in the impact sample was determined as of Nov. 3, 2002 (prior to the analysis date). For participants who had not yet graduated or failed as of this date, background characteristics were used to predict whether they were more likely to graduate or fail. This method was only used to impute graduation or failure status for 7 drug court participants (3 percent of the sample). The graduation rate was estimated at 66.4 percent, based on the known final status of 225 drug court participants (97 percent). Only 194 participants were available for the 1-year postprogram analysis (128 graduates and 66 failures).

The study used bivariate comparisons and multivariate analysis, including logistic regression, negative binomial analysis, and survival analysis. Over the postarrest period, the analysis examined the probability of at least one new conviction; the total number of new convictions; the probability of at least one new conviction for three types of charges (felony, misdemeanor, and drug-related); the specific conviction charges in the first reconviction; the number of crime-free days prior to the first rearrest that led to a conviction; and survival patterns over the total time period. Over the postprogram period, the analysis looked at the probability of at least one new conviction and the probability of at least one new conviction for each of three types of charges (felony, misdemeanor, and drug-related). Subgroup analyses were conducted to examine the impact of gender and prior convictions on program outcomes.

Subgroup Analysis

Rempel and colleagues (2003) conducted subgroup analyses to examine the impact of gender and prior convictions on program outcomes. Females in the treatment group showed a statistically significant lower likelihood of recidivating, compared with males in the treatment group, at the 3-year postarrest follow up. Additionally, participants in the treatment group with no prior felony offenses showed a statistically significant lower likelihood of recidivating, compared with participants in the treatment group who were convicted of prior felony offenses, at the 3-year follow up.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

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Adult Drug Courts

Drug courts are specialized courts that combine drug treatment with the legal and moral authority of the court in an effort to break the cycle of drug use and drug related crime.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

	Crime & Delinquency - Multiple crime/offense types
	Crime & Delinquency - Drug and alcohol offenses
	Drugs & Substance Abuse - Multiple substances

Rehabilitation Programs for Adults Convicted of a Crime

This practice includes programs that are designed to reduce recidivism among adults by improving their behaviors, skills, mental health, social functioning, and access to education and employment. They may become participants in rehabilitation programs during multiple points in their involvement with the criminal justice system. This practice is rated Promising for reducing recidivism among adults who have been convicted of an offense.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency - Multiple crime/offense types

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?