Evaluating Recidivism Among Drug Offenders in Florida's Residential and Non-Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Programs, 1991-1997 (ICPSR 2806)

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Between 1984 and 1989, felony drug arrests in Florida were on the rise. In the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1989, many prison admissions resulted from arrests and convictions in which the primary offense was a drug charge. At the same time, Florida's Control Release Authority, in its efforts to manage the size of the inmate population, was granting early release to drug offenders who were considered to be low risk. It was observed, however, that some of these releases were readmitted to prison three or four times in the course of a year. The Community Corrections Partnership Act of 1991 was passed with the intention of revising and rationalizing the state's prison commitment policy, particularly in light of the crack cocaine epidemic. The act was aimed at providing funding for substance abuse programs both within the community and within the prison system. A court-imposed requirement of drug treatment was regarded as a cost-effective option whereby a substantial fraction of drug-involved but nonviolent offenders could be safely diverted from a prison sentence to one of supervision in the community. The focus of this study was to investigate the relationship, if any, between drug treatment and success or failure of drug-involved offenders on probation/community supervision. Moreover, the researchers sought to evaluate the outcomes of drug-involved offenders admitted to (1) secure residential drug treatment programs, (2) non-secure residential drug treatment programs, (3) non-residential drug treatment programs, and (4) no drug treatment programs.

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Data were collected from administrative records provided by the Florida Department of Corrections, specifically case history records of offenders admitted to supervision in the community from July 1, 1991, through June 30, 1995. The data contain information on offenders admitted to either a residential (secure or non-secure) or non-residential drug treatment program, as well as those offenders receiving no drug treatment. Residential programs involved a structured, live-in, non-hospital environment, focusing on all aspects of substance abuse rehabilitation, including ancillary services such as vocation and education programs. A secure residential drug treatment program was defined as a high-intensity residential treatment program that limited access of the offender in and out of the facility. This treatment program was 12 to 18 months in length, and was considered appropriate for extreme substance abuse cases. Part 1 is comprised of all cases admitted to community supervision between July 1, 1991, and June 30, 1993 (fiscal years 1991 and 1992) and treated in a secure residential drug treatment program. Non-secure residential drug treatment programs were defined as a six-month medium-intensity residential program, which consisted of a two-month intensive treatment component followed by a four-month employment reentry component. Part 2 is comprised of all cases admitted to community supervision from July 1, 1991, through June 30, 1995, receiving treatment in a non-secure residential drug treatment program. Throughout the state of Florida, there also existed a large number of non-residential treatment programs that were made available through contracts with local service providers. Non-residential treatment was regarded as an intervention in the comprehensive community-based substance abuse programs providing therapeutic activities on a variety of intensity levels statewide (i.e., drug education classes, outpatient treatment, intensive outpatient treatment, and day or night treatment). Part 3 contains data on offenders admitted to non-residential drug treatment programs, whose community supervision admissions were between July 1, 1991, and June 30, 1993. Part 4 contains data on offenders admitted to non-residential drug treatment programs, whose community supervision admissions were between July 1, 1993, and June 30, 1995 (fiscal years 1993 and 1994). If the facility type was recorded as 0 or missing, the case was assigned to a "no treatment" category. Within this category cases were defined as being drug-involved and, presumably, candidates for admission to drug treatment. Part 5 contains data on cases admitted to community supervision between July 1, 1991, and June 30, 1993, who did not receive drug treatment of any kind. Cases admitted to community supervision between July 1, 1993, and June 20, 1995, receiving no drug treatment are contained in Part 6. Each supervision admission record contains a history of subsequent court actions that were complete through December 31, 1997. Failure on community supervision was defined in terms of the occurrence of at least one of the following events during a two-year observation period following admission to a specified drug treatment program: (1) revocation of the current probation sentence, (2) return to prison with or without sentence revocation, (3) an addition to the current probation sentence but without revocation, or (4) a new sentence to prison or probation after successful completion of the current sentence.

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Any drug-involved offender in the state of Florida admitted to community supervision between July 1, 1991, through June 30, 1997, who was admitted to: (1) secure residential drug treatment programs, (2) non-secure residential drug treatment programs, (3) non-residential drug treatment programs, or (4) no drug treatment programs during July 1, 1990, through June 30, 1994.

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Variables for all parts include population estimates, unemployment rates, population by age-specific categories, violent and nonviolent index offenses, per capita personal income, clearance rates, split sentence flag, primary offense disposition, primary offense felony level, current commitment years supervised, supervision type, whether current offense included a drug charge, number of prior supervision terms, number of prior commitments, reasons for failure, treatment facility code, number of drug sale/traffic offenses, outcome of supervision period, and reasons for prison intake. Demographic variables include race and gender.

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None

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2002-11-08

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