USING DRUG-TESTING TO IDENTIFY HIGH-RISK DEFENDANTS ON RELEASE - A STUDY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

In an effort to reduce pretrial criminal activity and absences at scheduled court appearances, the District of Columbia implemented a unique pretrial urine-monitoring system in 1984. Arrestess who test positive for drugs at arrest may be released on their own recognizance conditional on participation in the program. This article summarizes the results of an evaluation of the program and reports the findings from an independent reanalysis of data gathered during the original study. The analysis showed that only a minority of drug-using defendants released pending trial were likely to be rearrested or fail to appear. A pretrial urine-monitoring program may help separate low-risk, drug-involved arrestees from those who are at high risk of rearrest and failure-to-appear. © 1990.