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14. Recidivism rates and state-wide cost savings arising from drug courts
The Virginia Cost Benefit Analysis discussed here concluded "Virginia Drug Courts save $19,234 per person as compared to traditional case processing. In 2011, there were 937 drug court participants served in Virginia's adult drug courts, so that 937 program participation saved taxpayers $18,022,258 compared to cost of business as usual for the same group of offenders." Other researchers compute savings to the state in dollars saved per dollar invested at $2.21, (Urban Institute) to $3.36 where courts focus on higher-risk offenders (Urban Institute); to between $2 and $27 depending on degree of consideration of healthcare services, foster care costs and other benefits.
Other Scholarly studies on cost savings for every dollar spent: Urban Institute found $2.21 benefits to the criminal justice system for every $1 invested. (Bhati, AS, Roman, J.K. and Chalfin A (2008) To Treat or Not to Treat: Evidence on the Prospects of Expanding Treatment to Drug-Involved Offenders. Washington D. C. The Urban Institute) When drug courts targeted their services to the more serious higher-risk drug offenders, the average return on investment was determined to be higher $ 3.36 for every $1 invested. These savings reflected direct and measurable cost-offsets to the criminal justice system resulting from reduced re-arrests, law enforcement contacts, court hearings and the use of jail or prison beds.
When costs outside the criminal justice system are considered such as treating children born fetal alcohol syndrome, born premature, born addicted and in withdrawal, needing lengthy institutionalization, needing foster care services, born needing extended treatment after their release from hospital, the cost captured by the study depends on the nature of the medical problem being quantified and the depth to which the analyst is able to pursue the data. Cost savings estimates go between $2 and $27.
How account for such a difference? The literature says it depends on the nature of the cost being studied and the depth of the study undertaken. My efforts to determine some average cost for medical treatment to treat children poisoned in the womb is instructive of why cost figures would vary so much. Social Services investigators tell me the newborn's length of stay in intensive care is between one and two months, and I get at least one every couple of months. So I would suspect there is some data providing average cost for such children. Certainly, I would like to be able to present the savings, because I suspect the three babies Person County kept out of intensive care could have saved enough Medicaid money to fund drug court statewide. But I have yet to find it.
Carey, Finigan, Crumpton & Waller (2006) California Drug Courts: Outcomes, costs and promising practices: an overview of phase II in a statewide study. Journal of Psychactive Drugs SARC Supplement 3 345-356.
Finigan, Carey & Cox (2007) The "Impact of a Drug Court over 10 Years of Operation: Recidivism and Costs Portland, OR available at www.npcresearch.com. Barnoski, R. & Aos, S. (2003) Washington State's Drug Courts for Adult Defendants: Outcome Evaluation and Cost-Benefits Analysis. Olympia WA. Washington State Institute for Public Policy.)
What is the cost and impact of re-incarceration under current practice? Re-arrest rates in North Carolina for robbers was 70%, for burglars 74%, for larceny 64.6%, for motor vehicle larceny 78.8%. The cost of imprisoning convicts in North Carolina varies with the seriousness of the crime from $26,000 per year to $28,000 per year. (See N.C. Department of Corrections web sites.) Costs vary from year to year depending on population, pay down for new construction, and budget modifications. I suspect reported costs may have changed since I began this publication. Over 60% of prisoners return within three years to the prison for another all-expense paid stay. See http://sentencingprojct.org/doc/publications/inc
In North Carolina, returnees cost taxpayers another $26,000 to $28,000 per year. The cost of putting an addict in Drug Court ($1,760 per addict in my court) is less than the cost of imprisoning him two months.
The Virginia Adult Treatment Courts Cost-Benefit Analysis determines that Virginia saves $19,234 per person in drug courts as opposed to traditional case processing. This included cost like victimization and additional incarcerations. This study gave me a look inside the mind of a PhD economist that, after only two courses in economics, I had never seen before. I merely summarize its findings in this section, but I call it to the attention of any reader who might be interested in how at least one writer prepares a cost benefit analysis.
The re-offense rate for the study in the preceding paragraph looks at reoffending in a three-year period, meaning if the offender waited four years before getting caught, the reoffender is not considered for statistical purposes in these foregoing surveys. I can recall seeing no studies of re-offense rates that do not use a three-year look back period except for two surveys from my home county that used five years. I have not read or heard an explanation for why three years is used. To view the Virginia Adult Treatment Courts Cost-Benefit Analysis as of October 2012, see: www.courts.state.va.us/courtadmin/aoc/djs/programs/dtc/resources/virginiadtccostbenefit.pdf.
Funding I hope to raise for operating a drug court where I preside is $44,000 budgeted for local operations. I do not raise funds for counsel fees but $1,400 yearly cost for indigent counsel, paid by Indigent Defendant Services (the state agency that facilitates and pays for counsel fees for indigents charged with crimes). The sum is $45,400 as the overall cost. The cost per participant fluctuates with the number of participants. Assuming a current number or 25 participants, we arrive at a per participant cost of $1,816. Daily cost of least expensive State prisoner is $26,000- for 365 days at $71 per day. The current cost per addict in our program ($1,816) is just less than the cost of 26 days in prison at $71 per day at $1,846. (Logan, K. T. Hoyt. W. Mc Collister, K. E. French, M. T. Leukefeld, C., & Minton, I., (2004) Economic evaluation of Drug Court: Methodology, Results and Policy Implications. Evaluation & Program Planning, 27 381-396).
Other Scholarly studies on cost savings for every dollar spent: Urban Institute found $2.21 benefits to the criminal justice system for every $1 invested. (Bhati, AS, Roman, J.K. and Chalfin A (2008) To Treat or Not to Treat: Evidence on the Prospects of Expanding Treatment to Drug-Involved Offenders. Washington D. C. The Urban Institute. When drug courts targeted their services to the more serious higher-risk drug offenders, the average return on investment was determined to be higher $ 3.36 for every $1 invested. These savings reflected direct and measurable cost-offsets to the criminal justice system resulting from reduced re-arrests, law enforcement contacts, court hearings and the use of jail or prison beds.
See Carey, Finigan, Crumpton & Waller (2006) California Drug Courts: Outcomes, costs and promising practices an overview of phase II in a statewide study. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs SARC Supplement 3 345-356. See also Finigan, Carey & Cox (2007) The "Impact of a: Drug Court over 10 Years of Operation: Recidivism and Costs Portland, OR available at www.npcresearch.com. Barnoski, R. & Aos, S. (2003) "Washington State's Drug Courts for Adult Defendants: Outcome Evaluation and Cost-Benefits Analysis. Olympia WA. Washington State Institute for Public Policy.
Here is a compendium of other resource organizations and their web sites:
Justice Programs Office of the School of Public Affairs at American University.
National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
National Center for DWI Courts.
National Center for State Courts.
