Program Updates
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
10,000.
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 May1, 2012, 3006 defendants have been accepted into
the program, 283 are still
in treatment and 1365
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 75%, which
compares very favorably with
retention data of other
studies of residential drug
treatment programs.
Eighty-eight 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 $55.1 million dollars per the 1365 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
