NCJ Number
138634
Date Published
1992
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This paper summarizes a large-scale evaluation of the Stay'n Out therapeutic community, which has operated drug treatment programs for male and female inmates in the New York State correctional system for more than 12 years.
Abstract
Under the Stay'n Out program, clients are responsible for maintaining the program unit. They have jobs that range from menial chores to the enforcement of house rules for proper conduct. A major reward for good conduct is promotion to a higher job level with increasing responsibilities and status. Group activities include encounters (therapy), seminars (education), and special groups that address various unit management problems. Individual counseling and referrals to community therapeutic communities are also provided. The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design that compared the program with two types of comparison groups: inmates who volunteered for the program, but never participated and inmates who participated in other types of prison-based drug abuse treatment programs (counseling and milieu therapy) located in various prisons. Separate evaluations were conducted for the male and female inmate programs. The sampling pool for the treatment groups included all clients who had terminated from the programs from 1977 through 1984; the no-treatment group consisted of subjects who were placed on waiting lists to enter the prison therapeutic community. The effects of the Stay'n Out program and other treatment modalities on three parole outcome variables were analyzed: the percentage of the group arrested, the mean time until first arrest (for those arrested in each group), and the percentage of the group positively discharged from parole. The major findings of the evaluation are that Stay'n Out was effective in reducing recidivism, and this positive effect increased as time in the program increased, but the effect tapered off after 12 months in the program. 5 tables and 27 references