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Casa Report
The
National Center on Addition & Substance Abuse at Columbia
University Report
D.5. The CASA Report
Program success should be defined in terms of measurable
impact as well as smooth operations. Independent
researchers have confirmed the claims of DTAP’s
effectiveness. For example, Doug Young, a researcher who
was formerly affiliated with the Vera Institute of Justice
and who has studied numerous alternative-to-incarceration
programs in New York City, concluded in 1997:
Funded by New York State, Vera’s research on DTAP provides
evidence of the model’s achievement: DTAP participants stay
in treatment longer and have higher completion rates
compared with people in similar programs; they are unlikely
to commit crime during treatment – to date there have been
no arrests for violent crimes among participants; and early
data indicate low rates of recidivism among DTAP graduates.19
More recently, a five-year evaluation sponsored by the
federal government also reached that same conclusion. In
March of 2003, the National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, issued a
White Paper report, Crossing the Bridge: An Evaluation of
the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) Program.20
The White Paper was based on findings that are part of a
long-term analysis of the DTAP program by CASA which has
been funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA). The Principal Investigator on that project is
Steven Belenko, Ph.D. Formerly a senior researcher at CASA,
Dr. Belenko then became a Senior Scientist at the Treatment
Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and he
is now a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at
Temple University. CASA’s research partners for this study
have been the University of Maryland, College Park,
Maryland; the Research Triangle Institute in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina; and the Vera Institute of
Justice in New York City, New York. The White Paper was
prepared under the direction of Susan E. Foster, M.S.W.,
CASA’s Vice President and Director of Policy Research and
Analysis.
D.5.1. Retention and Graduation Rates:
Using data from more than 1,400 DTAP participants, the CASA
research team concluded that program participants remain in
treatment a median of 17.8 months, six times the three-month
median stay for long-term residential treatment reported in
the most recent national study of the general drug treatment
population, the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies (DATOS).21
Data from over 1,000 DTAP participants who were admitted
into the program before November 2000, revealed that more
than half (52.6%) graduate from the program.22
D.5.2. Reduced Recidivism: CASA researchers compared a
group of 280 DTAP participants (a group which included
both dropouts and graduates) to a group of 130
defendants who went through the criminal justice process
in New York City.
According to CASA’s findings, DTAP participants, two
years after leaving the program, had rearrest rates
that were 26 percent lower (43% vs. 58%) and
reconviction rates that were 36 percent lower (30%
vs. 47%) than those of the offenders in the matched
comparison group two years after leaving prison.
DTAP participants were also 67 percent less likely
to return to prison (5% vs. 15%) two years after
leaving the program than were members of the matched
comparison group two years after leaving prison.24
CASA’s analysis comparing just those who graduated
from DTAP to those of the matched comparison group
who served time in prison reveals findings that are
even more dramatic. DTAP graduates had rearrest
rates that were 33 percent lower (39% vs. 58%),
reconviction rates that were 45 percent lower (26%
vs. 47%), and were 87 percent less likely to return
to prison (2% vs. 15%) two years after completing
the program than the matched comparison group two
years after leaving prison.24
D.5.3. Employment:
CASA’s research revealed that DTAP graduates are
three and one-half times likelier to be employed
than they were before arrest and entrance into the
program (92% vs. 26%). According to the report,
“[r]econnecting ex-offenders to the world of
legitimate employment is crucial to maintaining
recovery and reducing future criminal behavior.”
For example, CASA found, from an analysis of 117
employable graduates, that among those DTAP
graduates who were working at the time of program
completion, 13 percent were rearrested during the
three-year follow-up. In contrast, 33 percent of
those who were not working were rearrested during
the same period.
25
D.5.4. Reduced Costs:
The CASA team concluded that DTAP’s results were
achieved at about half the average cost of
incarceration. CASA calculated that the average
cost for a DTAP participant was $32,975, and
compared that to the average cost of $64,338, if
that same person had been sent to prison.26
The results of the CASA research as reported in the
White Paper confirm DTAP’s own analyses of its data
and validate District Attorney Hynes’ faith in the
DTAP model as an effective means to reduce crime and
drug use. DTAP joins in CASA’s recommendation that
“courts and prosecutors offices across the Nation
should consider this type of program as a possible
cost-effective alternative to incarceration.”
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