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WINSTON-SALEM (MCT) — A new study says that drug treatment courts, which state legislators cut funding for in the recent budget, are effective at reducing crime and drug use.

Drug courts also saved an average of nearly $5,700 per participant, resulting in a net benefit of $2 for every $1 spent, according to the study released Tuesday by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C. The Center for Court Innovation in New York and RTI International in the Research Triangle Park assisted with the study.

This year, North Carolina legislators cut $2 million in funding for drug treatment courts across the state, including Forsyth County's 15-year-old program. The courts help keep mostly nonviolent criminals off drugs and out of prison. The program takes drug-addicted offenders convicted of misdemeanors or low- to mid-level felonies and allows them to stay in treatment and avoid prison as long as they comply with the conditions of their probation.

Nineteen drug treatment courts are still running in other N.C. counties by using existing staff or taking county money to make up for the loss of state funds, according to the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts. Six courts across the state have closed, including the adult and juvenile drug treatment courts in Forsyth County. The drug courts' last day of operation was June 30. Two staffers lost their jobs that day.

Without the drug treatment courts, offenders will end up on regular probation or in prison, where they would get less intensive supervision, court officials have said.

Judge Lawrence Fine of Forsyth District Court oversaw the adult drug treatment court for the county. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Legislators say they cut the drug treatment court funding because they faced one of the worst budget gaps in state history.

"It was a budget decision, not an efficacy decision," said state Sen. Pete Brunstetter, a Forsyth County Republican who is co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in June.

The study, which was paid for through the U.S. Department of Justice, examined 23 drug treatment courts in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington. Researchers tracked 1,156 drug court participants and compared them with 625 people in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina and Washington who weren't in drug treatment court but on probation.

Researchers interviewed them three times over an 18-month period, gave drug tests to those who gave permission and collected data from state correction agencies and the FBI.

Shelli Rossman, a senior fellow for the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center, said the study showed that the drug treatment court could be effective for anyone, including those who have serious drug addiction or with a violent criminal history.

"You might get more bang out of your buck by enrolling those who have more entrenched drug problems," she said.

According to the study, drug court participants were less likely than those who weren't in the program to report using drugs and also less likely to report using serious drugs such as cocaine. Drug court participants were less likely to test positive for drug use, the study said.

Drug court participants also were less likely to report committing crimes. After 18 months, drug court participants were less likely to commit criminal acts than those who were not in the program, the study said.

Participants also were not as likely to report needing assistance in employment, education or finance, suggesting that drug court addressed those needs, the study said.

The state spent more than $6,000 annually per drug court graduate for the local administrators and operating expenses, court officials said.

A state prison inmate costs an average $27,134 per year, and the cost of supervising someone on regular probation but not in drug-treatment court is $1,256 a year, according to the N.C. Department of Correction.