MST is one of thirteen juvenile justice treatment programs evaluated for cost effectiveness by the Washington State Public Policy Group in 2001 the publications The Comparative Costs and Benefits of Programs to Reduce Crime (Aos, Phipps, Barnoski, & Lieb: www.wa.gov/wsipp; document #01-05-1201). The purpose of the analysis was to report on the "bottom-line" economics of various crime reduction programs. In that analysis, MTS had the largest effect size of any of the juvenile justice programs. The net benefits per participant were calculated in two ways:
The report found that "Overall, taxpayers gain approximately $31,661 in subsequent criminal justice cost savings for each program participant. Adding the benefits that accrue to crime victims increases the expected net present value to $131,918 per participant, which is equivalent to a benefit-to-cost ratio of $28.33 for every dollar spent (pages 17- 18).”