Recidivism in Alaska's Therapeutic Courts

Our friend Teri Carns in Alaska has sent us the link to the state Judicial Council's latest report on recidivism in its felony therapeutic courts as the companion piece to an earlier report they did on general recidivism--http://www.ajc.state.ak.us/reports/admin.htm. Here's the abstract:

Recidivism in Alaska's Felony Therapeutic Courts (February 2007).
Comparison of the recidivism rates of 117 offenders who participated the Anchorage Felony Driving Under the Influence, Anchorage Felony Drug, and Bethel Therapeutic Courts to the recidivism rates of 97 matched offenders who did not participate in the therapeutic courts but who had similar characteristics as the participants, including substance abuse and/or alcohol problems. The Council found that graduates of these therapeutic courts were rearrested and re-convicted far less frequently than comparison offenders. The Council also compared the recidivism rates of these groups to the baseline recidivism rates of about two thousand offenders charged with felonies in 1999 and convicted of some offense. The recidivism rates of these baseline offenders are the subject of the Council's companion report Criminal Recidivism in Alaska.

And here are a few of Teri's comments:

"To my mind, the best finding is that Natives do about as well as Caucasians in the courts evaluated (there were only a couple of Natives in the Felony Drug Court, but good numbers in the Anchorage DUI Court, and the Bethel Therapeutic Court, both of which focus on alcohol problems). It's an important finding because there are concerns that programs need to be culturally sensitive so that minorities can benefit from them. We don't have enough data to suggest reasons for this finding. We didn't have enough of other minority groups (Blacks, Hispanics and Asian/Pacific Islanders) to do more than find that they didn't do as well as Caucasians."

And, I know I've said it before but while you're at the site, check out all the other great work that they've routinely done there for years.