Specialty Court Publications

Letter to Governor Beebe

NCSC Technical Assistance Report
Development of Statewide Drug Court Performance Measures

Legislative Audit report on Drug Courts


Drug Court Documents


Data Elements Reports

Drug Court Judges Committee
Of the
Arkansas Judicial Council  

State Drug Court Data Elements Report

A.C.A. 16-98-306 (d) requires the Division of Drug Court Programs in AOC to develop operational definitions for the terms: recidivism, retention, relapses, restarts, sanctions imposed, and incentives given.

“Recidivism” is defined as any conviction for a felony or DWI that results in incarceration in an ADC or DCC facility within three years after graduation.  Data to be collected every 6 months. 

Retention is defined as time in program, i.e. the number of days between admission and exit.  Means of exiting the program are:  graduation, termination, transfer, voluntary withdrawal or death.

Relapse is defined as a positive drug screen, with the following to be included but recorded separately as positives:  a) no show; b)not producing a sample in a reasonable period of time; c) tampered; d) refusal; and e) admitting to use.

Restarts is defined as going back to an earlier phase in the program.  A restart is a form of sanction (see below).

Sanctions imposed is defined as a punitive response to program violations or noncompliance.

Incentives given is defined as a positive reinforcement in the form of a tangible reward or a reduction in program requirements in response to program achievements.

The above definitions were reviewed and adopted by the committee in their meeting on September 12, 2008.  The report was presented to and received a favorable review by the Arkansas Drug Court Advisory Committee on Friday, September 19, 2008.  In addition, the report was presented to the Judicial Council during the Fall Judicial College/Council Meeting in October 15-17, 2008, in Jonesboro.