New System, Building on Years of Research, Will Facilitate Placement of Drug Involved Offenders in Appropriate Community-Based Settings

June 2007

A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D. today announced release of a web-based, electronic tool for local officials to rapidly assess drug-involved offenders at the point of arrest and target them into the most cost-effective community correction program.

Years in the making, “RANT” or “Risk and Needs Triage” is the brainchild of TRI’s Director of Law & Ethics Research, Douglas B. Marlowe, J.D., Ph.D. RANT builds upon Marlowe’s extensive research into the operative elements of programs for drug offenders, including which types of programs are best for which types of offenders. The ten-minute assessment can be performed by non-specialists, including law enforcement and parole officials, and assigns offenders into a placement based on his/her criminogenic risks and clinical needs.

“Our research has shown that drug-involved offenders’ prospects vary depending upon the level of criminal risk they present along with his or her clinical need for substance abuse treatment,” Marlowe said. “RANT is intended to match offenders to placements that offer appropriate mixes of treatment and supervision, based on a scientifically sound assessment.”

Marlowe cited the example of choosing between probation – low intensity and least costly – versus the moderately intensive drug court, where judges supervise clients as they concurrently attend substance abuse treatment programs. “Our research shows that some higher risk offenders – those with higher criminogenic factors – are more likely to do well under a combination of treatment with judicial supervision. Although that assignment is more costly, in the long run it may be more cost-effective if it works better to keep clients away from drugs and from jail,” he concluded.

RANT was developed and pilot tested in Hennepin County, Minnesota where it is being administered to all new adult arrestees for drug or property crimes in Minneapolis, with the results made available to the court and attorneys for disposition. Validation and reliability testing are ongoing concurrently with implementation of the system.