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Program Operations
C.1. Screening
A total of 7,864 paper-eligible, felony offenders have been
screened during DTAP’s twenty years of operation, which
yields an annual average of 393 screened defendants.
Between October 15, 2009, and October 14, 2010, 301
offenders went through the screening process.
C.2. Intake
During the
past twenty years, a total of 2,890
screened defendants were accepted into the program and
entered treatment.
The average annual admission is 145, and the average
acceptance rate is 39 percent.
Between October 15, 2009 and October 14, 2010, 120
new admissions were accepted, representing 40 percent of the
people screened in that year .
C.2.1. Gender:
Between October 15, 1990 and
October 14, 2010, 2,890 defendants were accepted into
treatment. The gender split of this population
reflects the male dominance in the drug market.[13]
It also reflects the District Attorney’s Office’s screening
process that permits some female predicate felons to receive
long term residential treatment through the Brooklyn
Treatment Court, which received additional funding to
address the specific needs of this population.
Eighty-nine percent of DTAP participants are male and
11 percent are female.
C.2.2.
Ethnicity:
The ethnic composition has remained fairly stable
over the past twenty years. Felony offenders from
disadvantaged minority and immigrant communities
continue to participate in the program at a higher
rate than others.
In total,
44
percent of DTAP participants were Hispanic,
48
percent were African-American, and
eight
percent were Caucasian.
C.2.3.
Age:
Since DTAP
targets repeat drug felons, program participants
tend to be somewhat older than the average criminal
justice population.
The average age at admission is
37.
C.3. Retention and
Graduation
C.3.1.
Retention:
Time spent in treatment decreases the likelihood of
returning to drugs and crime.
Unfortunately, many of those who voluntarily
seek treatment do not stay there long enough.
DTAP uses legal coercion, a form of external
motivation, to keep participants in treatment.
It has produced a one-year retention rate of
72 percent,
which means that more than two-thirds of those who
were accepted into the program remained in treatment
for at least a year.
DTAP participants’ median length of stay is
20
months which is far higher than the median length of
three months found for the 19 long-term residential
treatment programs that participated in a
widely cited
national study.
In January 1998, in an effort to improve
retention as well as divert a greater number
of addicted defendants and include those
charged with non-drug crimes, DTAP shifted
from a deferred prosecution program to a
deferred sentencing program by requiring all
participants to plead guilty to a felony
charge prior to admission into treatment.
It is believed that the certainty of
lengthy incarceration is more powerful than
the certainty of prosecution as an incentive
for defendants to remain in treatment.
Retention data support this
hypothesis. For those admitted under the old
model, the rate of retention at the twelfth
month was 64 percent, but for those admitted
under the new model, the rate increased to
75 percent.
C.3.2. Graduation:
High completion rates among treatment
participants have always distinguished DTAP.
During DTAP’s twenty years of
operation,
1,250
participants have graduated from the program
and have returned to the community.
Between October 15, 2009 and October
14, 2010, 55 DTAP participants successfully
completed treatment.
See Mahler,
Lisa, 1997, Sexed Work: Gender, Race, and Resistance
in a Brooklyn Drug Market. New York: Oxford
University Press.
[22]
The Drug Treatment
Outcome Studies (DATOS) were initiated by
the National Institute on Drug Abuse in
1990. Their findings are considered the most
authoritative in the field. For retention
results, see Simpson, D. D., Joe, G. W., &
Brown, B. S. (1997). “Treatment retention
and follow-up outcomes in the Drug Abuse
Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS).”
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 11(4),
294-307.
Results, see Simpson,
D. D., Joe, G. W., & Brown, B. S. (1997).
“Treatment retention and follow-up outcomes
in the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study
(DATOS).”
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 11(4),
294-307.
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