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23 Law & Pol'y 141 (2001)
Context and Change: The Evolution of Pioneering Drug Courts in Portland and Las Vegas (1991-1998)

handle is hein.journals/lawpol23 and id is 151 raw text is: Context and Change: The Evolution of Pioneering Drug Courts in Portland and Las Vegas (1991-1998)* JOHN S. GOLDKAMP, MICHAEL D. WHITE, and JENNIFER B. ROBINSON Drug courts in the United States are still relatively young, but they have proliferated dramatically since the first innovation in Miami in 1989. Research focusing on drug courts is now beginning to gain momentum, though it still lags considerably behind the growth of the movement itself. This article describes findings from a first longitudinal examination of two of the nation's first and longest operating courts in Portland and Las Vegas, focusing on the dynamic nature of the evolution of the model as adapted in each site. In particular, the research considers the impact of contextual factors- laws, administrative policies, and federal court orders - on the growth of drug court models in each jurisdiction as measured through their screening and enrolling mechanisms over time. The time series analyses suggest that several contextual factors played an important role in shaping these courts and affecting their impact on the target populations and the results they produced. The longitudinal findings illustrate the importance of context in making sense of normal evaluation findings and emphasize the dynamic nature of the change process in implementing innovative policy in the criminal courts. I. INTRODUCTION By all measures, the growth of treatment drug courts in the United States has been extraordinary since establishment of the first court in Dade County in 1989, with upwards of four hundred courts reportedly now in operation and scores of others in some stage of planning or preparation (see, e.g., Office of Justice Programs Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project 2000). Taken at its most challenging, the substance of the drug court model of court innovation represents a shift in justice and drug treatment paradigms with implications for justice change in the new century. * Address correspondence to John Goldkamp, Ph.D., Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University, Gladfelter Hall, 5th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19122. Telephone: (215)204-1375; fax: (215)204-3872; e-mail: john.goldkamp@cjri.com. LAW & POLICY, Vol. 23, No. 2, April 2001 ISSN 0265-8240 © Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2001, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK, and 350 Main Street, Maiden, MA 02148, USA.

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