Since the early 1980s, increased national concern over substance abuse, especially heroin and cocaine, have had a profound impact on such criminal justice interventions as mandatory treatment, police crackdowns, parole, probation, and incarceration. The 1980s also ushered in a period of strong conservative views that stressed the notion that the sources of deviant and criminal behavior reside within individuals and not in society. One consequence of this thinking was a de-emphasis on treatment and rehabilitation and the increased reliance on criminal justice sanctions as a means of reducing substance abuse and its related crime.
Research has indicated that some of these approaches, mainly mandatory treatment, can be effective in reducing narcotic addiction and crime. However, an emphasis on the arrest and incarceration of substance abusers has also caused problems by overburdening the criminal justice system and taxing the limited availability of personnel and other resources necessary for providing meaningful treatment. As a result, dramatic increases in the proportions of substance abusers under criminal justice supervision, severe prison overcrowding, and a lack of programs designed to meet the needs of substance -abusing offenders have become pressing concerns.
These concerns have been exacerbated by high rates of recidivism, relapse to substance abuse, and HIV infection among drug-involved prisoners. In response to this situation, new criminal justice interventions aimed at drug-abusing inmates have been recently developed (MacKenzie Uchida, 1994).
Compulsory Supervision/Mandatory Treatment
Among the most encouraging findings concerning criminal justice interventions are those associated with compulsory supervision and mandatory treatment of drug abusers. These interventions use legal pressure combined with a monitoring, or surveillance, component. One of the most ambitious evaluations of treatment outcomes in the United States was the Drug Abuse Reporting Program (DARP), which involved over 4,000 clients. This research found that methadone maintenance, therapeutic communities, and outpatient drug-free treatment programs.......
