Alternative models of instant drug testing: evidence from an experimental trial

Objective

This study describes and provides relapse and recidivism outcome findings related to an experimental trial evaluating the viability of frequent, random drug testing with consequences for use.

Methods

The sample consisted of 529 offenders released on parole. An experimental design with random assignment to one of three groups was employed. The Experimental Group received frequent, random drug testing with instant results, immediate sanctions, and referral for substance abuse treatment. Control Group I received frequent, random drug testing and treatment referral, but did not receive immediate test results or immediate sanctions. Control Group II followed standard parole practice. Members of this group were not tested on a random basis and did not receive immediate sanctions. Repeated measures ANOVA and survival analysis techniques were used to explore group differences.

Results

Frequent monitoring of drug use with randomized testing protocols, immediate feedback, and certain consequences is effective in lowering rates of relapse and recidivism. The effectiveness is particularly salient in the short term during the period of exposure to testing conditions.

Conclusions

The findings lend support to the use of randomized testing with swift and certain sanctions with parolees. Additional quality evidence is necessary to generalize and refine findings from this study and others that focus on sanction certainty. Future replications must consider the immediacy of test result and sanction execution as well as the length of exposure to randomized testing periods.     

How to Harness the Positive Potential of KKN: Explaining Variation in the Private Sector Provision of Public Goods in Indonesia

This article argues that the two prevailing perspectives that explain private sector participation in infrastructure in developing countries – new institutional economics and the rent-seeking approach – cannot account for the evident variations within and across sectors in a given country. This study uses two cases from Indonesia's attempt to promote private investment in toll road construction to demonstrate that a firm-level analysis is adequate to the task. In particular, the specific incentive structure that a rent-seeker faces may explain whether positive or negative rent will be facilitated.     

On Coase and COVID-19

European Journal of Law and Economics - From an epidemiological perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis. From an economic perspective, it is an externality and a social cost....     

Age spots: Gender sensitivity and the Hutchins Commission

The language of the Hutchins Commission report, A Free and Responsible Press, written in 1947, is sexist. The language flaws the report, but certainly does not destroy its value. Language must be separated from content, such as in Plato's and Kant's writings. Although the Hutchins Commission uses unfortunate language, its message goes beyond mere toleration to a supererogatory duty: The ideal of the marketplace of ideas shall be made concrete. Just as Plato's vision of women ruling in equal numbers has yet to become reality and just as Kant's ethical vision of every human's liberation from mistreatment has yet to be realized, the Hutchins Commission's call for a chorus of voices remains unfilled. The call has been echoed and in some case intensified, such as in Carol Gilligan's work on the voices of women. But the goals remain undiminished beacons that remind us—educators as well as the media—that we still have much work ahead in order to achieve inclusiveness.     

Public advocacy and the regulatory climate

A State's regulatory climate is an important determinant of utility capital costs and construction expenditures. This paper demonstrates the relationship of public (both proxy and qrassroots) advocacy movements with state regulatory climate and the cost of electricity. The perceived indifference of the utility industry and the regulatory process to public advocacy movements may be exploited by politicians seeking public office on an anti-utility platform. The result can be the weakening of the industry's long-run ability to produce a reliable power supply.     

Steve Backer,Grand Fleet Battlecruisers

Desmond Bristow, with Bill Bristow, A Game of Moles: The Deceptions of an MI6 Officer (London: Little, Brown and Co., 1993). Pp.292. £18.99. ISBN 0–316–90335–3.

Nicholas Elliott, Never Judge a Man by his Umbrella (Salisbury: Michael Russell, 1991). Pp.201. £14.95. ISBN 0–85955–182–2.

Nicholas Elliott, With My Little Eye: Observations Along the Way (Norwich: Michael Russell, 1993). Pp.111. £12.95. ISBN 0–85955–200–4.