The Report > Review of the Re-Entry Process > Prison and Jail > Substance Abuse Treatment

B: Prison and Jail

3: Substance abuse treatment can reduce both criminal activity and drug use, particularly when in-prison treatment is coupled with community-based aftercare.

In this chapter:

  • Overview
  • Recommendations:
  • Research Highlights:

    • In-prison drug treatment has been associated with positive outcomes, including reduced use of injection drugs, fewer hospital stays for drug and alcohol problems, and decreased recidivism rates. [1]   The most successful outcomes are found for those who participate in both in-prison treatment and postrelease treatment in the community. [2]   Inmates who participate in residential treatment programs while incarcerated have 9 to 18 percent lower recidivism rates and 15 to 35 percent lower drug relapse rates than their counterparts who receive no treatment in prison. [3]   Several studies have examined the effectiveness of therapeutic communities, which isolate prisoners from the general population and provide them with intensive treatment. [4]   One study found that those who completed both an in-prison therapeutic community program and community-based aftercare were significantly less likely to be reincarcerated than other comparison groups: only 25 percent of this cohort was reincarcerated while 64 percent of aftercare drop-outs and 42 percent of untreated prisoners went back to prison within three years of their release. [5]  

    1. Gerald G. Gaes et al, "Adult Correctional Treatment," Michael Tonry and Joan Petersilia (eds.), Prisons (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press) .

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    2. Lana D. Harrison, "The Revolving Prison Door for Drug Involved Offenders: Challenges and Opportunities," Crime and Delinquency 47, no. 3 .

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    3. Gerald G. Gaes et al, "Adult Correctional Treatment," Michael Tonry and Joan Petersilia (eds.), Prisons (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press) .

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    4. D. Dwayne Simpson, "National Treatment System Evaluation Based on the Drug Abuse Reporting Program (DARP) Follow-Up Research," in Frank M. Tims and Jacqueline P. Ludford (eds.), Drug Abuse Treatment Evaluation Strategies, Process, and Prospects, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Research Monograph No. 51 (Bethesda, MD) ; Robert L. Hubbard et al., "Treatment Outcome Prospective Study (TOPS): Client Characteristics Before, During and After Treatment," in Frank M. Tims and Jacqueline P. Ludford (eds.), Drug Abuse Treatment Evaluation Strategies, Process, and Prospects, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Research Monograph No. 51 (Bethesda, MD) ; National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institutes of Health, Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS), 1991-1995 ( Bethesda, MD: 1996); Harry K. Wexler, Gregory P. Falkin, and Douglas S. Lipton, A Model Prison Rehabilitation Program: An Evaluation of the Stay' N Out Therapeutic Community: Final Report to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (Albany, NY: Narcotic and Drug Research, Inc.) .

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    5. Kevin Knight, D. Dwayne Simpson, and Matthew Hiller, "Three-Year Reincarceration Outcomes for In-Prison Therapeutic Community Treatment in Texas," The Prison Journal 79 :337-351.

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