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Offender Treatment - Aftercare Policy Guidelines
GORSKI-CENAPS Web Publications
www.tgorski.com
Published On: September 06,
2001 Updated On: September 06, 2001
© Terence T. Gorski, 2001 |
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| Policy
PROFILES |
| Substance
Abuse and the Prison Population: Aftercare |
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Substance
Abuse and the Prison Population: Aftercare
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This policy developed in collaboration with
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University
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Policy MATTERS is a prevention-focused health
policy resource guide developed and published by CCHI.
For more information, or to contribute
your policy ideas, call CCHI at 916 646.2149
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Background
Substance abuse is a
chronic relapsing condition. Without continued aftercare services,
many parolees will continue to use drugs, commit crimes and get
re-arrested. Currently, few parolees are given access to drug
treatment and many are sent back to prison for violations involving
positive drug tests. Overall, during 1995, 110,802 parolees were
incarcerated for violations of their parole conditions - many
involving positive drug tests (1). To reduce the likelihood of
relapse, long-term management programs and aftercare should be
available to inmates being released from prison.
Policy
Provide long-term
aftercare services for parolees who need them to help prevent
relapse into the criminal justice system.
Prisons and jails can assist inmates and help
reduce crime by getting released inmates to participate in
community-based treatment services. Without follow-up treatment in
the community, the benefits of prison services, such as drug and
alcohol treatment, educational and vocational training, and
psychological and medical care given to the inmate, will be
undermined.
The effectiveness of treatment can be enhanced by
careful pre-release transition planning. This entails identification
of treatment and other service needs such as drug-free housing,
literacy training, job placement and social services; referrals to
community-based programs; support to help inmates avoid people,
places and situations that trigger relapse; and a mechanism for
adequate post-release supervision.
Opportunity to Succeed
(OPTS), a CASA demonstration program, seeks to pull together all of
the services parolees need to become productive, tax-paying
citizens: drug and alcohol treatment and aftercare, job training,
health and social services, assistance in getting a job and
drug-free housing. An early lesson of this test program is that
timely intervention is crucial. Many parolees who were not met at
the prison gates by support personnel abused alcohol and/or drugs on
the day of their release.
Effectiveness
Aftercare and transition services that motivate
parolees to join community treatment, residential treatment
services, intermediate care, halfway houses or work release programs
are essential components of an effective treatment program (2). The
benefits of prison-based treatment are greater when released inmates
participate in aftercare programs, as the following examples
illustrate.
 | Forever Free, a program operated by the
California Department of Corrections for female inmates
approaching their parole dates, reduced the rate of return to
custody to 38 percent for all program graduates, compared with
62 percent for program dropouts. Participation in
community-based treatment further increased the likelihood of
successful outcomes - reducing the rate of return to custody to
28 percent for program graduates with some community treatment
and 10 percent for graduates with at least five months of
community treatment (3).
| Amity Righturn, which features a three-month
community re-entry component, reduced re-incarceration rates
within one year of parole to 26 percent for Amity graduates who
completed aftercare, compared with 43 percent for Amity
graduates who did not participate in aftercare, 50 percent for
Amity program dropouts and 63 percent for a matched comparison
group (4).
| Oregon's Parole Transition Program identifies
inmates' service needs and develops community program linkages
before the inmate is released. Preliminary assessments of the
Parole Transition Program found that clients had lower rates of
re-arrest one year after release compared to their rates before
incarceration. Furthermore, 60 percent of the clients were still
drug-free six months after release (5). |
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Contacts
CASA at Columbia University, 152 West 57th
Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10019-3310. Phone:
212-841-5200. Fax: (212) 956-8020. Website: www.casacolumbia.org.
Forever Free Program, California Department of
Corrections, Office of Substance Abuse Programs, P.O. Box 942883,
Sacramento, CA 94283. Phone: (916) 327-3707.
Gary Field, Ph.D. Administrative Counseling and
Treatment Services, Oregon's Parole Transition Program, 2575 Center
St. NE, Salem, Oregon. Phone: (503) 378-8373. Fax: (503) 378-5118.
Email: gary.d.field@doc.state.or.us.
References
1. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of
Justice Programs and U.S. Department of Justice (June 30, 1996). Probation
and Parole Population Reaches Almost 3.9 million. Washington,
DC.
2. Taxman F, Spinner D (1997). Jail Addiction
Services (JAS) Demonstration Project in Montgomery County, Maryland:
Jail and Community Based Substance Abuse Treatment Program Model:
Final Report. Unpublished Report: U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Maryland
Governor's Commission on Drugs and Alcohol Abuse, Montgomery County
Government.
3. California Department of Corrections, Office
of Substance Abuse Programs (1995). California Department of
Corrections Overview of Substance Abuse Programs. Sacramento,
CA.
4. Lipton DS and National Institute of Justice
(1995). The Effectiveness of Treatment for Drug Abusers Under
Criminal Justice Supervision. Washington, DC: U.S. Department
of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.
5. Field G, Karacki M and Washington County
Community Corrections (1992). Outcome Study of the Parole
Transition Release Project. Salem, OR: Oregon Department of
Corrections.
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