Quality Assurance: Assessing the Effectiveness of Court Advocacy Services on Sentence Reduction and Recidivism Rates

Abstract

This study looked at the impact of Osborne Association's Court Advocacy Services which identifies mitigating circumstances in an indigent criminal defendant's life, and supplies these circumstances to the public defender assigned to the case, on sentence reduction and recidivism. This study is designed to contribute to the knowledge of the differential treatment of indigent criminal defendants, and to highlight the benefit of using social workers and agencies that cater to indigent defendants. The research study used a sample of 181 individuals who exited the Osborne Association's program in 2008 and 2009. Secondary data was used, which came from the Division of Criminal Justice Services. The logistic regression revealed that there was no difference in successful exit rates (sentence reductions) between those who exited in 2008 and 2009. The multinomial regression revealed that there was no difference in multiple recidivism rates between those that exited in 2008 and 2009. A descriptive analysis revealed that of everyone who exited in 2008 and 2009, 55% of Osborne Association's clients have not been re-arrested to date.