Abstract
The Focused Offender Disposition (FOD) Program was established by the Bureau of Justice Assistance in 1988 as one of many responses to the growing numbers of drug-involved offenders coming to the attention of the criminal justice system. The basic purpose of FOD was to develop and test a needs assessment classification system that courts could use for directing drug offenders into the most appropriate type of treatment program. A secondary purpose was to examine the efficacy of urine monitoring as an alternative to treatment. The centerpiece of FOD was the Offender Profile Index (OPI), an assessment instrument that yielded a numerical score that suggested four alternative interventions — long-term residential treatment, short-term residential treatment, outpatient treatment, and urine monitoring only. This article offers some preliminary findings on the project and offers suggestions for the implementation of similar efforts.
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