Program Summary
The number of offenders in New York State prisons for drug-related
crimes skyrocketed with the onset of the crack epidemic, from about
3,000 in 1986, to over 23,500 in 1996. Many of these state prison
inmates committed non-violent crimes to support their drug habit.
In October, 1990, Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes
initiated the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Program (DTAP) on
the premise that defendants would return to society in a better
position to resist drugs and crime after treatment than if they had
spent a comparable time in prison at nearly twice the cost. Thanks
in part to the successful collaboration that has developed since
then between prosecutors, judges, defense counsel, and treatment
providers, the availability of treatment for addicted offenders has
increased dramatically over the last two decades and the number of
offenders in prison for drug-related crimes has declined to under
12,000.
DTAP is the first prosecution-run program in the country to divert
prison-bound felony offenders to residential drug treatment. The
program targets drug-addicted defendants arrested for nonviolent
felony offenses who have previously been convicted of one or more
nonviolent felonies. Qualified defendants enter a felony guilty plea
and receive a deferred sentence that allows them to participate in a
residential therapeutic community (TC) drug treatment program for a
period of 15 to 24 months. Those who successfully complete the
program have their charges dismissed; those who fail are brought
back to court by a special warrant enforcement team and sentenced to
prison. To prevent relapse and reduce recidivism, DTAP has a job
developer to assist graduates in finding and maintaining
employment.
As of September 1, 2010, 2895 defendants have been accepted into the
program, 356 are still in treatment and 1247 have completed the
program and have had their charges dismissed. Since 1998, when DTAP
shifted from a deferred-prosecution to a deferred-sentencing model,
the program has achieved an impressive one-year retention rate of
76%, which compares very favorably with retention data of other
studies of residential drug treatment programs. Ninety-one percent
of DTAP’s graduates who are able to work are employed. Ninety
percent of the participants who failed treatment have been returned
to court for prosecution and sentencing in a median time of
twenty-two days. DTAP is highly cost effective.
Our analysis of the savings realized on correction, health care,
public assistance and recidivism costs
combined with the tax revenues generated by the DTAP graduates
reveals that
diversion to DTAP has resulted in economic benefits
of $49.8 million dollars per the 1247 graduates.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at
Columbia University, which recently announced the findings of its
federally-funded five-year evaluation of DTAP in a White Paper,
Crossing the Bridge: An Evaluation of the Drug Treatment
Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) Program, has endorsed the program
as “a promising example of what law enforcement can do to reduce the
number of addicted drug offenders in America’s prisons.” CASA’s
study included the following dramatic findings: DTAP participants
remain in treatment six times longer than those in the most recent
national study of long-term residential treatment. The participants
are 67% less likely to return to prison two years after leaving the
program than are individuals of a matched comparison group two years
after leaving prison. DTAP graduates had re-arrest rates that were
33% lower; re-conviction rates that were 45% lower; and were 87%
less likely to return to prison than those of a matched comparison
group. DTAP graduates are three and one-half times likelier to be
employed than they were before their arrest. These results are
achieved at half the cost of incarceration.
National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University
Crossing the Bridge: An Evaluation of the Drug Treatment
Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) Program (2003 Report)
http://www.casacolumbia.org/Absolutenm/articlefiles/Crossing_The_Bridge_March2003.pdf
Excerpt from
“High Society:
How Substance Abuse Ravages America And What to Do About It”
NDAA Talking Justice Article:
http://communities.justicetalking.org/blogs/day17/default.aspx
