Dr. Knight is Associate Director for Criminal Justice Studies at the Institute of Behavioral Research at TCU. He also has more than 20 years’ experience and expertise conducting drug treatment and criminal justice research and evaluation studies.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Knight served on the Improving Drug Abuse Treatment for AIDS Risk Reduction (DATAR-1) project, funded with a NIDA treatment research demonstration grant. He examined client and organizational factors associated with improved client functioning while in treatment. The focus of his current research is the impact that treatment has on addicted offenders, particularly with respect to improvements in public health and safety. Since 2006, Dr. Knight has been the TCU Research Center principal investigator for the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS) Cooperative Agreement, where his efforts have centered on the development and testing of evidence-based assessments and interventions for offenders with drug-related problems (including HIV). As part of this large cooperative, Dr. Knight is giving special attention to implementation and sustainability of innovations, an important aspect of the proposed project. Also, since 2008, he has been serving as co-principal investigator for a NIDA-funded project, called Sustainable HIV Risk Reduction Strategies for criminal justice systems. This five-year project includes two major research phases intended to reduce HIV and other addiction-related disease risks in criminal justice populations. Since 2010, he has been serving as one of four multiple principal investigators for a NIDA-funded project, called RCT of an Augmented Test, Treat, Link & Retain Model for North Carolina and Texas Prisoners. This five-year project examines a comprehensive program based on elements of “seek, test and treat” that results in a significant reduction in the potential for HIV-infected prisoners to transmit their virus after release. The project includes a multiple institutional, multi-disciplinary, multiple principal investigator research team with extensive experience conducting significant and innovative research in the North Carolina and Texas criminal justice systems.