Corrections administrators should seek to tap the expertise of community-based substance abuse treatment providers and engage them in providing services to prisoners. Such specialists in substance abuse can provide a level of clinical experience and holistic programming that may be difficult or inefficient to develop within the corrections structure itself. In addition, engaging community-based providers can facilitate continuity of care by building long-term relationships between treatment providers and individuals in prison or jail that can endure after the program participants are released to the community. (See Policy Statement 20, Planning Continuity of Care, and Policy Statement 27, Maintaining Continuity of Care, for detailed discussions on the effectiveness of having the same treatment providers both before and after release.)

Example: Project Success (FL)

Project Success is a treatment program for female prisoners based on a modified TC model. The program focuses on providing services in a holistic manner and draws upon the individual's desire to change. Project Success has agreements with community-based educational and housing partners to ensure that participants are adequately prepared for release and supported in the community during a 12-month aftercare case management phase.

Community-based providers are also likely to be more familiar with the community to which an individual will return after his or her incarceration than are corrections staff. This ability to identify with the person and his or her hometown may make community-based providers more credible to the program participant as role models or counselors. Furthermore, engaging community members in corrections-based treatment delivery can contribute to cultural competency. Such competency can be a key characteristic of successful treatment within the correctional facility. Although reported drug use by individuals prior to incarceration varies little by race, minority groups are significantly overrepresented among prisoners generally, and community providers may better reflect these demographics than do corrections staff. Accordingly, it may be easier for community providers to overcome some of the barriers to trust and cooperation that may exist between prisoners and other treatment staff. (See Policy Statement 14, Behaviors and Attitudes, for more on building relationships with prisoners to improve service delivery.)

Another strategy to address cultural competency and to improve the outcomes of treatment programs is to include former substance abusers or successful program graduates on the staff of such programs. Staff who share a history of both drug use and incarceration with program participants may be better able to engage them in treatment than staff whose backgrounds are not similar to those of the program participants. Program graduates or even senior program participants (in longer-term programs, such as TCs) can serve as mentors who have an intimate knowledge of the challenges that participants face.

Example: Stay'n Out, New York Therapeutic Communities, Inc.

Stay'n Out was established in the New York State corrections system by a group of past substance abusers who were also convicted of crimes. The Stay'n Out Program was one of the first effective therapeutic communities established in a corrections system, and it set the stage for numerous TCs nationwide.

Peer-to-peer counseling and other social support networks, when used in conjunction with clinically-based forms of substance abuse treatment and therapy, can be a valuable part of a person's recovery strategy. Individuals engaged in treatment may be more likely to maintain personal relationships with peers in recovery (such as 12-step program sponsors or faith-based mentors) after their release, rather than relationships with formal support agencies. Research shows that informal social controls exerted by family, peers, and community can have a more direct effect on offender behavior than formal controls such as supervision or law enforcement. ^[1]   Furthermore, these social controls can endure after an individual's involvement with the justice system is terminated.

Example: Recovery Mentor Program, Washington County Community Corrections (OR)

Washington County's Community Corrections Department contracts with a nonprofit agency to provide mentor services to individuals participating in substance abuse treatment. The recovery mentors, who are in recovery themselves, connect individuals with community support; accompany them to Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Narcotics Anonymous meetings; help them find clean and sober housing; and assist them with a variety of life skills, such as job searches, public transportation, and applications for public assistance.