NCJ Number
73385
Journal
Journal of Offender Counseling, Services and Rehabilitation Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Dated: (Summer 1980) Pages: 357-368
Date Published
1980
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Special treatment needs of female drug offenders and special program features required for them are discussed.
Abstract
The composite special features of incarcerated female drug offenders create a series of unique treatment needs and treatment restrictions that must be met by a therapeutic drug community for women. Such a community should be all-female, because women will be more open and free from sexually stereotyped behavior when they are not in the presence of men, to whom they have been socially conditioned to be subordinate. Because female drug offenders are economically, socially, and politically handicapped as a result of environmental conditioning, they require more intensive, immediate, and broadly-based vocational and educational training than men. Also, in female drug treatment programs, the duration of the first, or treatment, stage should be shorter than in traditional programs, since this will minimize the tendency for female drug offenders to develop an excessive dependency in such a protective environment. Both black and white female drug abusers have extremely poor self-images; therefore, both require extensive positive self-image training. Through individual and group counseling, female drug offenders need to develop interpersonal attachment and resistance coping strategies. This will help them move from internally to externally directed activity, expression, and aggression. Therapeutic programming for female drug offenders must not use the humiliation tactics of traditional drug treatment programs to sensitize women to their errors, nor should it use menial, sexually stereotyped tasks as learning experiences. This constitutes negative reinforcement of existing self-hatred in women. Twenty references are provided.