STUDENT: Domenica Coleman
PROJECT ADVISOR: Michael M. Evans
ABSTRACT
Two thirds of the United States prison population are addicted to drugs or alcohol or both. More than half of those addicts will return to jail due to violations or new charges. While jail time is warranted in most charges against addicts, is it helping to treat the underlying issue? Another alternative to incarceration, is drug treatment courts (DTC). DTCs are a highly supervised, long term probation period offered to high risk individuals with substance use disorder and non-violent charges. This research presents a review of recent research literature to determine the effectiveness of substance abuse interventions used in the criminal justice system, including DTCs and prison. This research compares the advantages and disadvantages of DTCs to incarceration based on sobriety rates. Results suggest high rates of success within time spent in the DTC compared to prison which showed high rates of relapse, violation, and reoffence. However, little research was found to support long term sobriety after completion of the program.
Domenica,
This was a great topic for comparison poster. The most important finding that I got from this is that drug court makes a more positive influence on drug offenders than incarceration. Although the research did not find long term effects of this past one, this leaves an opening for more research to be completed on the subject. You poster was very organized and the pictures were a great addition. The only suggestion I have is of you had all the bullet points to the left rather than scattered and the in the literature review, the font was a little too tiny for me to read. You could consider making that section bigger.
Great job,
Annette Strubeck
Thank you for the feedback ! I also agree that this is a great starting point for further research to be conducted on long term effects!!