Noncompleting Drug Court Clients: A Qualitative Assessment of Harm Reduction Effects

Abstract

Most drug court program evaluations focus on successful clients. The purpose of this study was to understand how partial exposure to drug court affected clients who failed to complete the program. Those that participated at least 30 days (N = 30) were interviewed. A medical as-treated design and a harm reduction paradigm were used as frameworks to determine effects. Moderate harm reduction results were found with non-completers. Examining clients who fail to complete drug court is critical to understanding the full efficacy of the therapeutic jurisprudence model.