NCJ Number
136812
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 36 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1992) Pages: 21-29
Date Published
1992
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article describes the CHOICE program, a comprehensive residential drug treatment program for offenders who have been seriously involved with drugs in the past.
Abstract
The CHOICE Program is designed to stimulate change in drug-involved offenders by encouraging responsibility; developing the individual's decisionmaking capabilities; teaching the inmate basic social/coping skills; challenging previously held thoughts, beliefs, and values; and helping the individual find a healthy substitute for his past drug and criminal lifestyle. Inmates must satisfy certain criteria before enrolling in the CHOICE Program. Since the facility in which the CHOICE Program is currently housed is an all-male, medium-security institution, participants must be males who require no higher than medium-security custody. Program participants must also have at least 16 months remaining on their sentences, so they can complete both the institutional (10 months) and community (up to 6 months) phases of the program. Program participants must, therefore, have no detainers, pending charges, State commitment obligations, or history of other behavior that would preclude their placement in a Community Corrections Center. There are also criteria that exclude inmates from the program who have medical, psychological, or psychiatric problems likely to hamper the inmate's ability to participate in the program. The 10-month institutional program is composed of the following principal elements or components: intake/evaluation/followup, drug education, skills development, lifestyle modification, wellness, responsibility, and individualized counseling/case supervision. The strengths, weaknesses, and future research agenda of the program are discussed. 10 references