Latest Reports from the Justice Policy Center

Female prisoners returning home face reentry challenges with fewer skills and more deficits than men, and those differences are manifested in higher rates of relapse and recidivism. Nancy La Vigne encouraged a House subcommittee to consider measures to ensure that female D.C. Code violators are housed in prisons close to their homes. Doing so will enhance the women's ability to maintain contact with their children, a critical factor in successful reintegration, and help them link to substance abuse treatment and mental health services.

In 2006, the Corporation for Supportive Housing launched its Returning Home Initiative (RHI) with two goals: 1) to establish permanent supportive housing as an essential reentry component for formerly incarcerated persons with histories of homelessness, mental illness, and chronic health conditions; and 2) to promote local and national policy changes to integrate the corrections, housing, mental health, and human service systems. The Urban Institute assessed the process of system change stimulated by the RHI activities in three communities that received significant RHI investment and other jurisdictions. In addition, the report identifies challenges and lessons learned from the RHI to date.

The Urban Institute, the Center for Court Innovation, and RTI International conducted a five-year Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation on behalf of the National Institute of Justice. This presentation covers the impact of adult drug courts on: 1) drug use, 2) criminal activities and incarceration, 3) socioeconomic status, 4) mental health, and 5) families. Results include the impact of drug court participation in each area, and for whom drug courts work (i.e., whether they are particularly suited to some, as opposed to other, categories of offenders).

The Urban Institute, the Center for Court Innovation, and RTI International conducted NIJ’s Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation. This presentation describes the policies and practices of drug courts with the highest performance based on participants’ outcomes, using data collected for MADCE drug court participants. The focus is on key court policies and practices, namely: adherence to treatment best practices, leverage, predictability of sanctions, and multidisciplinary team decision making.

The Urban Institute, the Center for Court Innovation, and RTI International conducted NIJ's Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation. This presentation describes results of a multivariate model that tests whether assignment to drug court alone affect outcomes; whether drug court practices moderate outcomes, and if drug court practices mediate moderated outcomes by changing attitudes and beliefs. Findings for drug use using a mediated moderator model are presented.

The Urban Institute, the Center for Court Innovation, and RTI International conducted a five-year Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation on behalf of the National Institute of Justice. This presentation covers the impact of adult drug courts on: 1) drug use, 2) socioeconomic status, 3) family functioning, and 4) mental health. Results include offender characteristics at baseline (i.e., the severity of the problems that had to be overcome), as well as the impact of drug court participation in each area, and for whom drug courts work (i.e., whether they are particularly suited to some, as opposed to other, categories of offenders).

The Urban Institute, the Center for Court Innovation, and RTI International conducted NIJ's Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation. This presentation uses data collected for MADCE drug court participants to describe key court policies, practices, and dynamics (e.g., treatment, leverage, judicial supervision, judicial interaction, case management, drug testing, sanctions, rewards, etc.). It addresses: 1) how policies, practices, and courtroom experiences vary across drug court programs; 2) which policies, practices, and courtroom experiences make drug courts more or less effective; 3) whether courtroom experiences mediate drug court success; and 4) whether the effects of specific policies and practices vary by offender subgroup.

The Urban Institute, the Center for Court Innovation, and RTI International conducted NIJ's Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation, which focused on 23 drug courts and 6 comparison jurisdictions in 8 states. This presentation covers the impact of adult drug courts on 1) criminal behavior, 2) incarceration, 3) perceived fairness of the court and judge, and 4) perceived threat of sanctions for noncompliance. It also examines the widely discussed drug-crime nexus: does treatment attendance and reduced drug use lead directly to less re-offending.

The authors examine well-intended programs that fell short of their objectives and argue that the public policy world cannot be divided neatly into successes and failures. The reality is that some ideas work in some places some of the time. Good results are hard to sustain and even harder to replicate.

This research brief describes the experiences of 652 male prisoners in Illinois, Ohio, and Texas, who participated in the Urban Institute's longitudinal study of prisoner reentry, Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry. The men were surveyed shortly before release from prison and interviewed two times following their release—at two and seven months after release. This research brief describes characteristics of the men and their reentry experiences—including program participation, housing, family relationships, substance use, employment, reoffending, and reincarceration. The brief also summarizes findings from previous Returning Home reports regarding predictors of reintegration outcomes.