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Drug Court and Contingency Management

NCJ Number
188164
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 2001 Pages: 73-90
Author(s)
William M. Burdon; John M. Roll; Michael L. Prendergast; Richard A. Rawson
Date Published
2001
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews the literature that describes the growth, operations, and evaluations of drug courts.
Abstract
The main components of the drug court model include early identification and referral of drug-involved defendants to community-based treatment (i.e., at the arrest, pretrial, or presentencing phase of the adjudication process), close integration of judicial supervision and treatment, frequent monitoring by a judge for compliance with treatment, use of graduated sanctions for noncompliance, and frequent drug testing. The drug court model is behaviorally oriented, based on clear rules and expectations, with specific punishments imposed by the judge for noncompliance. As such, most drug courts can be characterized as contingency management programs that rely heavily on punishment of inappropriate behavior. This contrasts with the currently popular contingency management treatment procedures, which emphasize reinforcement for appropriate behavior. This paper argues that an integration of the drug court model with current contingency management techniques that focus on positive reinforcement will further improve the effectiveness of this approach in alleviating the problems encountered by the criminal justice system in dealing with substance-abusing offenders. 1 table and 59 references