Assessing Equity and Inclusion in Community Corrections: An Evaluation of Drug Court Admissions

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Drug courts are a specific kind of problem-solving court that were created in the late 1980s to help provide more specialized care for those struggling with addiction. Admissions criterion vary across the country, and it is important to understand more about actual admissions and drug offense patterns to establish whether people are being referred and admitted to drug court in an equitable manner. As such, the current project evaluates the admissions trends with regards to gender/sex, race, ethnicity, and age in one drug court from 2017-2021. Policy recommendations and directions for future research are also discussed.

Author

• Lisa Melander, Kansas State University