RD369 - 2007 Annual Report on Evaluation of Virginia's Drug Treatment Courts


Executive Summary:
In 2004, with the passage of the Drug Treatment Court Act, the General Assembly directed the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES), with the assistance of the State Drug Treatment Court Advisory Committee, to develop a statewide evaluation model and conduct ongoing evaluations of the effectiveness and efficiency of all local drug treatment courts. Va. Code § 18.2-254.1(N). The General Assembly further directed that a report of these evaluations be submitted to the General Assembly annually.

This report summarizes the recent completion of the first two of three phases of development of the statewide evaluation model, including the implementation of an information technology system and a survey of existing drug treatment court program operations. These accomplishments lay the groundwork for the third phase, collecting and analyzing case and program-specific data using a web-based evaluation model. This third phase will apply case and program-specific data to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of Virginia’s drug treatment courts.