Blog: evaluation

Maintaining a Critical Eye When Assessing Research Findings

By Bridget Murphy, March 19 2015

We live in the information age. Reclaiming Futures sites and other jurisdictions engaged in similar focused reform efforts have access to information from multiple sources and disciplines such as: web-sites; journal articles, news; juvenile justice, behavioral health, psychology, sociology, education, social work, medicine and so on.

So how do we critically assess these sources of information? Let’s discuss by using an example.

Topics: Disproportionate Minority Contact, evaluation, Reclaiming Futures

$1.29 Million National Evaluation to Examine Juvenile Drug Courts Implementing Reclaiming Futures

By Lori Howell, July 11 2012

New federal dollars will pay for a $1.29 million, multi-year evaluation in six juvenile drug courts implementing Reclaiming Futures, a national program that improves drug and alcohol treatment for teens in trouble with the law. This evaluation, the first of its kind, will examine the impact, processes and cost-effectiveness of Juvenile Drug Courts implementing the Reclaiming Futures model. Funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention through an interagency agreement with the Library of Congress, this evaluation will be conducted by the University of Arizona's Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW).
"We know from a 2006 evaluation by the Urban Institute that Reclaiming Futures improves the lives of young people by changing the juvenile justice system for the better," says Susan Richardson, national executive director of Reclaiming Futures. "This new research will look at specific outcomes, such as recidivism, relapse rates, and costs." 

Topics: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, evaluation, Funding, No bio box, OJJDP, Reclaiming Futures