NCJ Number
153285
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1993) Pages: 1-6
Date Published
1993
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the history of drug abuse treatment in criminal justice settings.
Abstract
Toward the close of the 1920's, as growing numbers of heroin addicts were being sentenced to Federal penitentiaries, several members of Congress advocated the establishment of Federal "narcotics farms" for the treatment of drug-addicted inmates. The results was the Porter Narcotic Farm Act in 1929, which led to the establishment of narcotics farms at two locations. The 6- month treatment regimen included detoxification, psychotherapy, and vocational counseling. This was the first attempt at comprehensive prison-based drug treatment. Prison treatment programs in the 1950's and 1960's, although still few in number, had begun to reflect the innovations in rehabilitative approaches that were appearing in the wider community: group therapy, methadone detoxification, methadone maintenance, and therapeutic communities. Throughout the 1960's and into the 1970's, therapeutic communities were the most visible type of treatment in correctional settings. From the early 1970's through the early 1980's, prison-based therapeutic communities seemed to come and go. With the Nation's current "war on drugs" that began about a decade ago, interest in treatment in criminal justice settings has increased. The most visible and enduring of these programs was and remains the Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC) program. Under TASC, community-based supervision is made available to drug-involved individuals who would otherwise burden the justice system with their persistent drug-associated criminality. Many of the new programs that treat criminal justice clients do so by linking treatment to graduated sanctions, as does TASC. 28 references