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Analyzing Drug Policy Change in New York City, Final Report The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: A Natural Experiment in Reform: Analyzing Drug Policy Change In New York City, Final Report Author(s): Jim Parsons, Qing Wei, Joshua Rinaldi, Christian Henrichson, Talia Sandwick, Travis Wendel, Ernest Drucker, Michael Ostermann, Samuel DeWitt, Todd Clear Document No.: 248524 Date Received: January 2015 Award Number: 2010- IJ-CX-0030 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant report available electronically. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. A Natural Experiment in Reform: Analyzing Drug Policy Change In New York City Final Report to the National Institute of Justice Grant No: 2010-IJ-CX-0030 Jim Parsons (Principal Investigator), Qing Wei, Joshua Rinaldi, Christian Henrichson, and Talia Sandwick The Vera Institute of Justice Travis Wendel and Ernest Drucker (Co-Principal Investigator) John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York Michael Ostermann, Samuel DeWitt, and Todd Clear (Co-Principal Investigator) School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University January 2015 This research was supported by grant number NIJ 2010-IJ-CX-0030 from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice. Acknowledgements This research would not have been possible without the support and participation of many people from organizations across New York State. We would like to express our appreciation to the following organizations and individuals and apologize to anyone that we have neglected to mention. Teresa Salo, Leslie Kellam, Leigh Bates, Jeehoon Kim, Renee Konicki, and Diane Cavin at the New York State Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) for preparing administrative data for us, responding to numerous questions, and graciously sharing their many insights on drug law reform. Joseph Pariso, Kevin Lasko and Alison Hamanjian at the New York State Office of Court Administration for providing data for the study, advising on the operation of the courts and facilitating interviews with judges. Eric Sorensen and his research team at the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) for his patience and support providing data from the New York City jail. District Attorneys in the five boroughs of New York City and the Office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor for allowing us to interview their staff and granting access to DTAP data. Staff-members at The Bronx Defenders‘ office and Legal Aid Society who assisted us with the casefile review portion of the study. Members of our expert panel for providing invaluable guidance and assistance to this project, including: Sandeep Varma from the New York Therapeutic Community, Inc.; Reginald Fluellen from Forensic Health Services, Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation; William Gibney from the Legal Aid Society Criminal Practice Special Litigation Unit; Elizabeth Brady from the New York City Police Department; Corinne Carey from the New York Civil Liberties Union; Daliah Heller from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Final Report to the National Institute of Justice Grant No: 2010-IJ-CX-0030 iv This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Hygiene Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care and Treatment; Rhonda Ferdinand from the New York City Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor; Nestor A. Ferreiro from Bronx District Attorney‘s Office; David Heslin and Anne J. Swern from Kings District Attorney‘s Office; Douglas Knight from Queens District Attorney‘s Office; Timothy Koller from Richmond District Attorney‘s Office; Martin F. Horn from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York; Leslie Kellam, Chief of Research and Evaluation, New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services; Glenn E. Martin, at The Fortune Society, Inc.; Anita R. Marton, at the Legal Action Center; Gabriel Sayegh from the Drug Policy Alliance; and Robin Steinberg and Justine Olderman at The Bronx Defenders. All of the interviewees who took time out from their busy lives to answer our sometimes confused queries, and to attempt to explain this very complex system to us all, and give their own assessments of how it may have changed in response to the 2009 DLRs and other factors that we now know have had great importance in the patterns of outcomes that so many are now trying to understand. John Jay Department of Anthropology undergraduates Leonardo Dominguez, who performed an enormous amount of procedural and analytic labor on the casefile component of the case records, and Adriana Synné Alicea, who assisted with coding and transcription of interview files. John Jay Department of Anthropology undergraduates Leonardo Dominguez and Robert Riggs for reaching out treatment service providers to gather treatment information. The John Jay Office of Sponsored Programs and Office for the Advancement of Research for support and bureaucratic ninja skills, and colleagues at the John Jay Social Network Research Group for inspiration, solidarity, and fellowship. Final Report to the National Institute of Justice Grant No: 2010-IJ-CX-0030 v This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Our current and former colleagues at the Vera Institute of Justice for their collegiality, support, guidance and good humor, including Ayesha Delaney-Brumsey, Olivia Sideman, David Cloud, Valerie Levshin, Shelley Azumbrado, Siobhan Carney, Tina Chiu, Alice Chasan, Michael Mehler, Mary Crowley, Adair Iacono, Vera‘s director, Nick Turner, and our former director Michael Jacobson, as well as interns—Ashley Schappell, Neha Mehta, Nnenna Onyema, and Sara Gorman. At the National Institute of Justice, we want to thank our program officer Linda Truitt for her support and encouragement. Finally, we would like to thank our families for putting up with us, and giving us a reason to go to work in the morning. Final Report to the National Institute of Justice Grant No: 2010-IJ-CX-0030 vi This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv List of Tables viii List of Figures x List of Appendices xii Part I. Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Review of Literature 3 Chapter 2. Overview of NYS Drug Law Reform 11 Chapter 3. Overview of court-mandated treatment diversion programs in New York City 16 Chapter 4. Overview of the study 26 Part II. Implementation of DLR 30 Chapter 5. Overview of Implementation Analysis of DLR 30 Chapter 6. Trend Analysis 34 Chapter 7. Quantitative Implementation Analysis 50 Chapter 8. Qualitative Analysis of Implementation of Reform 99 Qualitative interview results by interview topic 103 Case file analysis results 127 Part III. The Impact of Drug Law Reform on Reoffending 132 Chapter 9. Methodology 134 Chapter 10. Recidivism Analysis Findings 141 Part IV Cost-Benefit Analysis 151 Chapter 11: Methodology 153 Chapter 12. Findings and Discussion 172 Part V. Conclusion and Recommendations 191 References 204 Appendices 214 Final Report to the National Institute of Justice Grant No: 2010-IJ-CX-0030 vii This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. List of Tables Table 2-1. Summary of DLR Changes Drug Conviction Charge Level .................................... 14 Table 3-1. Eligible Offenses for Different Types of Diversion ................................................. 17 Table 3-2. Treatment Diversion Programs by NYC Jurisdiction .............................................. 23 Table 6-1. Felony Drug Arrests Imprisonment Rate, by Race and Year.................................... 44 Table 7-1. Comparison of Cases Characteristics for Felony Drug Arrests between Unmatched Samples and Matched Samples .............................................................................................. 57 Table 7-2. Comparison of the 2008 and 2010 Matched Felony Drug Arrest Samples: Average Prison Sentence, Jail Sentence, and Probation
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