Pennsylvania Drug Court Effectiveness: The Montgomery County Experience
Open Access
Author:
Banerjee, Michael Arjun
Area of Honors:
Criminology
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr. Lecinda Marie Yevchak, Thesis Supervisor Stacy Silver, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Pennsylvania Drug court Effectiveness
Abstract:
The Drug Court Program in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania was established in April of 2006. To date, more than 380 offenders have been admitted to the program. A total of 34 surveys were distributed before a drug court session in Montgomery County, with 31 of those surveys being returned afterwards. Using the information collected via the survey, this evaluation of the Montgomery County Drug Court Program compares program effectiveness for various groups of current program clients in order to identify the ways in which the program works well in addition to the ways in which the program does not work so well. The client groups were delineated using various differentiae, such as frequency of drug use, drug of choice, and sex. More specifically, this study compares the program effectiveness for clients who used drugs more frequently to that of clients who used drugs less frequently; the program effectiveness for clients who prefer “harder” drugs to that of clients who prefer “softer” drugs; and the program effectiveness for female clients to that of their male counterparts. The results of this study indicate that Montgomery County’s Drug Court Program is more effective for clients who used drugs less frequently and for clients who prefer “softer” drugs. No significant differences in program effectiveness were found between male and female clients.
