The Recidivism of Drug Offenders Following Release from Prison: A Comparison of Kentucky Outcomes

Evaluation results from other HOPE-like programs have been mixed. In Washington State, program participants registered fewer days of incarceration following a violation (20% reduction), had 20% fewer odds of any conviction (including felony and property), and 30% reduced odds of a violent felony conviction. They also had greater treatment utilization, reduced rates of violations, and lower correctional costs than members of the comparison group (Hamilton, Campbell, van Wormer, Kirgel, & Posey, 2016, p. 1036). In Kentucky, research on probationers under the Supervision Motivation Accountability Responsibility and Treatment (SMART) program found they had significantly fewer violations (1.2 vs. 2.3), positive drug tests (8.6% vs. 29.4%), and days incarcerated (32.5 vs.118.1) than probationers in the comparison group (Shannon, Hulbig, Birdwhistell, Newell, & Neal, 2015). However, no significant impacts were recorded from programs in Delaware (O’Donnell, Brent, & Visher, 2016) or from four sites in the HOPE demonstration field experiment (Lattimore et al., 2016).