Therapeutic Community in a California Prison: Treatment Outcome after 5 years


Therapeutic Community in a California Prison:

Treatment Outcome after 5 years 

Zhang, Sheldon X., Robert E. L. Roberts, and Kathryn E. McCollister. 2011. “Therapeutic       Community in California Prison: Treatment Outcome after 5 years.”

Crime and Delinquency 57(1): 82-101.

The article above discusses the research topic, “Outcomes of Therapeutic Community treatment participants in the California Prison system”. This article covers research that was conducted while studying a group of inmates who participated in a prison-based therapeutic community in a California state prison, with a comparison group of similar offenders. The article goes about answering the question, “Do therapeutic communities help participants lower return-to-prison patterns, if not, what are the new arrests and types of offenses?” The research took place during the enrollment in the therapeutic community (TC), as well as 5 years after their initial prison release.  The study followed the inmates for 5 years after their initial release in order to record return-to-prison patterns and new-arrests and types of offenses. The type of data that will answer the basic research question are reports of acts, behavior and events, economic data, and self identification.

Therapeutic communities are beginning to become increasingly popular options among correctional facilities with drug-involved offenders. Therapeutic communities are typically drug-free residential settings that rely heavily on peer influence and group processes to promote abstinence and pro-social behavior. Research findings on therapeutic communities in prison have been mostly positive. Inmates who completed the TC treatment and entered into aftercare showed the most positive outcomes at 12 and 24-month intervals.

After treatment, TC participants were offered one of three treatments in aftercare: residential, sober living with mandatory drug-free outpatient services, and drug-free outpatient services. Many studies have found that the highest rates of successful outcomes accrued to those who completed post release aftercare programs. Because most aftercare programs are voluntary, it appears that inmates’ innate motivational factors play an important role in post release treatment participation and successful reintegration into the community.

The rate of return-to-prison among participants was examined in two follow-up periods: the first year following release from prison and the period between the inmate’s release and the end of data collection, averaging just less than 5 years and 4 months. The research was conducted by the following:

1. In-depth interview – yielding data on each participants demographic background, educational and employment histories, criminal and substance abuse histories, psychological functioning, relationships with family and friends, health status, and health service utilization.

2. Detached observation and participant observation – 4 additional years post in-depth interviews.

3. Public records – arrest records maintained by the California Department of Justice and the prison inmate data maintained by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Used to determine whether or not participants were reincarcerated, and if so, under what circumstances and offenses.

 

With the data analysis conducted by the following:

1. Interview data is used to separate the inmates into the control group and the experimental group. The information is to place similar individuals in both of the groups.

2. Bivariate associations (correlations) – to determine whether or not TC communities help participant’s lower return-to-prison rates.

3. Frequency counts (numbers and percentages) – to determine what percentage of TC participants and comparison participants were reincarcerated and if so, for how long.

 

More than half of ALL study participants were returned to prison within 12 months of release. Treatment participants who received aftercare upon release were roughly 10% less likely to be incarcerated during the first year. More than 72% of both groups were reincarcerated at least once by the end of the 5-year observation period. As a group, the TC participants and the comparison participants had almost identical reincarceration rates.

Over both follow-up periods, TC participants who received aftercare were rearrested at a rate lower than that of those who did not. None of the observed difference in either observation period reached any statistical significance.