CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice

Introduction

The need for substance abuse treatment services in the criminal justice system is well established. Over 7 million adults were under correctional supervision in the United States in 2005 (Glaze and Bonczar, 2006). Many of these have substance abuse or addiction disorders. In 2004, 45% of federal and 53% of state inmates met criteria for drug abuse or dependence (exclusive of alcohol problems), and over 60% of inmates had used illicit drugs regularly (Mumola and Karberg, 2006). Slightly over 36% of admissions to publicly funded substance abuse treatment in 2005 were referred by criminal justice sources, mostly probation/parole officers (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2007: Tables 3.5 and 3.12).

Fewer offenders receive treatment than need it. Mumola and Karberg (2006) report that only 15-17% of inmates meeting abuse or dependence criteria had received substance abuse treatment in prison. Recent estimates indicate that treatment is available to fewer than 10% of offenders in correctional settings on a daily basis (Taxman et al., 2007a). Perhaps not surprisingly, there is a high failure rate for offenders returning to their communities after incarceration. Langan and Levin (2002) reported that within three years of release, 67% of drug offenders were rearrested for a new offense, 47% were reconvicted for a new crime, and about 49% were back in prison serving a new sentence or on a technical violation of release requirements. Substance abuse is a robust predictor of recidivism ([Belenko, 2006], [Bonta et al., 1998] and [Dowden and Brown, 2002]).

Research Hypothesis

The recognition of the potential benefit of collaborative efforts, there have been few systematic efforts to study organizational models that might be useful for guiding the integration of criminal justice requirements with drug abuse treatment.

Literature Review

Criminal justice and treatment service integration strategies based on standardized risk and assessment tools, using incentives and sanctions, and drug testing have been recommended ([Farabee et al., 1999], [Taxman, 1998], [Taxman and Bouffard, 2000] and [Wenzel et al., 2001]). Still, there are many missed opportunities for cross-agency coordination and collaboration in assessing need for substance abuse and mental health treatment and linkage to services, in planning transitional services, in allocating treatment resources to the drug-involved offender, and in linking to community-based medical care for HIV and other infectious disease ([Duffee and Carlson, 1996], [Hammett et al., 1998], [Robillard et al., 2003], [Taxman and Bouffard, 2000] and [Taxman et al., 2007b]).

Despite widespread recognition of the potential benefit of collaborative efforts, there have been few systematic efforts to study organizational models that might be useful for guiding the integration of criminal justice requirements with drug abuse treatment. In 2002, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) began a major research program that is the focus of several of the studies in the current volume. A primary objective of this research program, the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS), is to improve outcomes for offenders with substance use disorders by improving the integration of substance abuse with other public health and public safety ...