Modeling a Modified TC Design for Work Release

• NCJ Number: 157836
• Author(s): D Lockwood
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): DA06124; DA06948
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Sale Source: University of Delaware
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC

Annotation

Implementing the therapeutic community (TC) approach to drug treatment in prison and work release settings has proven difficult; although work release programs are more open than prisons, custodial issues remain paramount.

Abstract

The primary purpose of work release is to obtain and maintain employment. Other activities such as education and drug treatment are encouraged but not required. Under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the University of Delaware's Center for Alcohol and Drug Studies is attempting to create a TC in a work release setting. The evaluation of Delaware's CREST Outreach Center involves three research groups: (1) respondents from a prison TC entering CREST; (2) respondents from the general prison population with no prior TC experience entering CREST; and (3) respondents from the general prison population entering conventional work release. All respondents participate in baseline interviews prior to leaving prison; 6, 12, and 18 month followups; and HIV and urine testing. All respondents must volunteer to participate in CREST, and participation in CREST cannot affect the client's sentence. Because the community seems at greater risk from offenders in community-based work release programs than from offenders in prison, the scrutiny imposed on a work release TC is often more stringent than on prison TC's. Several steps have been taken to ensure the separation of CREST from regular work release. All TC activities occur in a separate building, and CREST clients are housed in a unit separated from other work release residents by a wall. In addition, CREST staff take full responsibility for the correctional status of clients, thus increasing program autonomy and separation. The treatment model at CREST follows a five-phase design that encompasses orientation, involvement in the TC community, role modeling and client supervision, preparation for transition from the TC community to the outside community, and re-entry. Considerations in adapting a TC to work release include community response and support, site selection, client selection and recruitment, Department of Correction support and cooperation, security, program autonomy, treatment length, and compatibility between the client's correctional status and treatment requirements. 10 footnotes