Probation and parole officers spend 10% to 40% of their time administering and responding to drug and alcohol tests; yet, no information is available on how often testing should be performed to achieve effective and cost-efficient outcomes, when it is appropriate to reduce the frequency of testing, and whether testing should be conducted on a random basis. This session will review findings from a retrospective, correlational study of more than two million test specimens provided by more than 110,000 justice-involved persons. Results must be replicated in controlled studies, but point to promising practices related to the frequency, duration, and randomness of drug and alcohol testing in community corrections.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how the weekly frequency of drug and alcohol testing relates to test outcomes and supervision violations.
2. Learn how the duration of testing during the first year of supervision relates to test outcomes.
3. Learn whether testing must be conducted on a random or unannounced basis when performed at various testing frequencies.