Cumulative data on every aspect of the RISE Court will not only provide an historical memory for the program and point to its progress, but allow judges to ask questions and address challenges in real time. What follows are thirteen charts for completed RISE Courts with data in completion, drug use, treatment, employment, and CBT.  These charts represent a small sample of available configurations.

The goal is enable a judge or interested person to ask discrete questions about any aspect of his or her court, and have the relevant data available immediately. 

Chart I provides an initial drug profile and average ages of the cohort, as well as graduation percentages.  A quick perusal will confirm the correlation between higher ages and higher graduation rates; less clear (fortunately) is whether initial drug use correlates with graduation rates. This suggests there is a critical role for a presiding judge in working with a participant with a drug issue.  There has been no indication, so far, that court-mandated drug or mental health treatment programs at sentencing (e.g., Daytop Samaritan, TriCenter) has an effect on outcomes (Chart VII). 

Chart II looks at employment. The key columns are the “Pick-Ups” – the jobs created while in the RISE Court less the jobs lost. The Pick-Up results Post-COVID are very good: they show a positive, improving picture among the non-graduates as well as the graduates. RISE Court Employment Specialist Rachel Harris should be commended for this.

Charts III and IV look at arrests. I believe the overall sample is still too low, but the conclusion so far is uplifting: only one RISE Graduate, in 2019, had a subsequent felony or misdemeanor arrest during their subsequent period on supervision, although a second was arrested in 2021 after completing the program, but prior to the graduation ceremony (whew!).

Chart V looks at the twelve-session Cognitive Behavioral Therapy program (CBT), and the early outcomes so far confirm the importance of the program:  Post-Covid there has been only one felony arrest of a participant who completed CBT.

Charts VI and VII look at the various conditions attached to the sentencing court supervision orders, and the cases in which actual treatment is provided for a drug or mental condition. As expected, those with drug or mental health conditions (Chart VI) are less successful in completing the RISE program.  Chart VII (see last two columns) reinforce the mandate that the RISE Partnership must seek out and offer a voluntary, private mental health option.

Chart VIII breaks the age data into age cohorts. The results are so far definitive:  the young (under 30) do not do well in the RISE Court, while the “old” (over 45), who have had a chance to think over their lives, do very well.  If the young continue to be a cohort in RISE (this cohort is not present in other reentry courts), then the judges must think more about how to assist this vulnerable group at the outset.

Charts IX-XIII examine marijuana and narcotics. In many cases the sample is still too small for anything but preliminary observations.

Chart IX looks at positive marijuana tests. Post COVID, 32% of those testing positive for marijuana remained unemployed (see Col G).

Chart X looks at narcotics other than marijuana. The sample is too small, although unsurprisingly no one with a positive narcotics test has graduated.

Chart XI examines positive drug tests and arrests. Over half of those testing positive have been arrested, although so far a narcotics positive does not pose a higher risk of arrest than a marijuana positive.

Chart XII reviews participants terminated principally for a failure to test negative for marijuana. This remains a low percentage category to total terminations, but worthy of discussion.

Chart XIII looks at principal reasons for RISE Court terminations. Note there may be multiple ancillary reasons (e.g., a person terminated for Arrest may also be testing positive and unemployed).

To View the Charts. Please contact:  omccluskey@risecourt.org