The Problem

Sentencing and other dispositional policies for drug-involved offenders are in major flux in this country. The unprecedented expansion of the U.S. inmate population that ensued from the “War on Drugs” led to spiraling correctional costs and strict prison population “caps” imposed by court settlements. As a result, many states now divert large numbers of nonviolent drug-possession offenders from incarceration into community-based programs.

A continuum of correctional options exists in most jurisdictions for dealing with drug-related offenders. These programs range from pretrial diversion or minimal-reporting probation at the least intensive end of the continuum, to judicially-managed drug courts at the center, to intermediate punishment and incarceration at the far right. Costs increase moving from left to right on the continuum, sometimes substantially.

A critical task facing most jurisdictions is to develop a rapid, reliable and efficient system to assess drug-involved offenders and target them into the most effective programs – without increasing costs unnecessarily. This requires simultaneous attention to offenders’ criminogenic risks and clinical needs.

Criminogenic risks are those characteristics of offenders that make them less likely to succeed in traditional forms of rehabilitation and thus more likely to return to drinking, drug-taking or crime. In this context, the term risk does not relate to a risk for violence or danger to the community. Examples of such high-risk factors include but are not limited to an earlier onset of substance abuse or crime, recurring criminal activity, and previously unsuccessful attempts at rehabilitation.

Clinical needs are those areas of psychosocial dysfunction that, if effectively addressed, can substantially reduce the likelihood of return to substance abuse, crime and other misconduct. Examples of high-needs factors include but are not limited to addiction to drugs or alcohol, psychiatric symptoms, chronic medical conditions and illiteracy.

Importantly, this does not imply that high-risk or high-needs individuals should be denied opportunities to participate in rehabilitation or diversionary programs. Rather, more intensive and better skilled community-based programming is required to improve outcomes for such individuals.

Risk and Needs Quadrants™

For the past decade, researchers in the Division of Law & Ethics Research at TRI have been conducting experimental research investigating the critical elements of specialized programs for drug offenders and determining which types of drug offenders are best suited for which types of programs. This has resulted in several dozen empirical articles and review papers summarizing the research evidence, which have been published in peer-reviewed scientific, law-review and criminal justice journals. Major references.

One product emanating from this work is an evidence-based conceptual framework for matching drug offenders to community correctional programs. Using a 2-by-2 matrix, offenders are simultaneously matched on risk and needs to one of four quadrants having direct implications for selecting suitable correctional dispositions and behavioral care plans. Some examples of indicated interventions for individuals in specific quadrants are provided below:

The Solution

Development of RANT

To implement this framework in practice, it was necessary to devise an easy-to-use, empirically-supported assessment tool that could triage drug offenders into the most appropriate quadrants. TRI developed such a tool based on the following considerations:

• Administration could take no longer than 15 minutes due to the large numbers of arrestees in many urban jurisdictions.
• The tool had to be appropriate for non-clinically trained probation officers or case managers who may have limited interviewing experience or little time to be trained on formal assessment techniques.
• It would need to be web-enabled so that it could be accessed by multiple users simultaneously across the jurisdiction, including judges, probation officers, treatment providers and attorneys (with appropriate security protections and levels of access).
• It would need to be capable of generating immediate scoring outputs available in real time to assist with court dispositions, and which can be easily and quickly read and understood by non-clinicians.

Specific items were selected according to the following criteria:

• There had to be reliable and valid scientific evidence that each item was significantly predictive of outcomes in corrections-based programs and drug abuse treatment.
• Each item had to be objectively measurable and verifiable, and not rely solely on clinical judgment or unbiased self-reporting by offenders.
• The items could not offend due process or equal protection by exerting disparate impacts on protected classes, such as racial or ethnic minorities or females.

Uniqueness of RANT

Many instruments exist that evaluate clinical needs or criminogenic risk factors. However, none combine the following attributes which make RANT unique:

• RANT simultaneously assesses both criminogenic risks and clinical needs and categorizes clients into conceptual "quadrants" that have immediate relevance for correctional programming.
• RANT takes less than 15 minutes to administer and does not require extensive clinical training.
• RANT is web-enabled, thus permitting access by multiple users simultaneously across the jurisdiction (with appropriate security protections).
• Because RANT can be managed on the TRI server, any desired changes to items, help menus, scoring algorithms, output statements, or aggregate reports can be made in real time and are available as soon as users log-on the next time.
• Data collected in RANT are stored in immediately analyzable format, thus permitting TRI scientists to perform data analyses and generate new reports as requested by local evaluators and administrators.

About the Treatment Research Institute

The Treatment Research Institute (TRI) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research and development organization dedicated to reducing the devastating effects of alcohol and other drug abuse on individuals, families and communities by employing scientific methods and disseminating evidence-based information and technologies. Founded in 1991 by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Studies of Addiction, TRI is dedicated to conveying the results of research to policymakers, treatment providers, prevention organizations and the families of those affected by substance abuse. Bringing proven technologies to improve practice and policy is a critical part of this mission.