Supervised Treatment in the Criminal Court: A Process Evaluation of the Manhattan Misdemeanor Drug Court

• NCJ Number: 196509
• Author(s): Rachel Porter
• Date Published: May 2002
• Length: 41 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Corporate Author: Vera Institute of Justice
• Sale Source: Vera Institute of Justice; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded August 22, 2002

Annotation

This document evaluates the Manhattan Misdemeanor Treatment Court (New York).

Abstract

The Manhattan Misdemeanor Treatment Court, established in July 2000, targets misdemeanor drug offenders alone, unlike the four other treatment courts currently operating in New York City. To evaluate the success of the program, interviews were conducted with judges, attorneys, and other principal stakeholders in the court; court documents, files and procedures were reviewed; and data on participants were analyzed. Anonymous interviews were conducted with 29 participants in the court to assess their perceptions of court components, such as rewards and sanctions. Over 100 hours were spent observing treatment and courtroom proceedings. Results showed that the misdemeanor treatment court had successfully implemented a collaborative approach to screen, assess, and monitor people in treatment. The court enrolled 264 misdemeanor drug offenders in its first 10 months, all of whom pleaded guilty to possession of small amounts of a controlled substance. More than three quarters of the participants said that cocaine or heroin was their drug of choice. This suggests that severity of addiction is not correlated with severity of offending among these misdemeanor offenders. The length of treatment varied according to the criminal history of participants, and the court was most successful with defendants that had the least number of prior convictions, and received the shortest treatment. More than 80 percent of these participants graduated the two-day treatment intervention program where they were placed. The successful implementation of the Manhattan Misdemeanor Treatment Court benefited from collaboration and commitment among all the current stakeholders early in the planning process. The court did not reach its target intake so it will have to negotiate with the county prosecutor and the rest of the court team about expanding eligibility criteria. The treatment court is forced to confront the limits of coercion in providing needed treatment because the treatment needs of the court's population are greater than anticipated. 7 tables, 15 footnotes, 4 appendixes