A new study published in the fall issue of the Journal of Criminal Justice looks at the effect of drug courts on confinement and finds that they reduce the incidence of jail stays by nearly half, and prison stays by more than one-third. Interestingly, however, drug courts did not reduce days spent in prison in the aggregate. Why? Because drug offenders who failed drug court programs were often dealt harsher sentences than those who were conventionally processed.

This new paper complements a recent National Institute of Justice cost-benefit analysis, which found that, relative to conventional proceedings, drug courts save an average of $5,680 per offender. (These savings are due primarily to increases in post-contact offender productivity and markedly lower future criminality.) Other studies have found drug courts reduce both general and drug-related recidivism.

– Evan Meisler