0 - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

Finding: Of the three major outcomes examined, TC sigmficantly reduced the likelihood of
reincarceration alone. Post-release employment was strongly related to a lower likelihood of
reincarceration, rearrest, and drug relapse.
Recommendation:
1. Correctional officials, in cooperation with Parole, Probation and privately contracted
Community Correctional Facilities (CCF’s) should mher explore and evaluate strategies
to enhance post-release employment prospects.
Inmate Characteristics
Results indicated the necessity for researchers to account for multiple admissions into drug
treatment programs. During the study period, 2,891 inmates entered our sample, but they
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accounted for over 4500 admissions into various programs. Two major consequences follow.
First, an inmate’s total treatment exposure (duration and intensity) varies depending upon which
specific combination of treatments the inmate enters and completes. Time in treatment and
treatment exposure are among the most consistent predictors of drug relapse and recidivism
(Lipton, 1997). Second, previous TC studies have often not accounted for these multiple program
exposures; the perplexing result is that treatment migration seems likely and previously reported
findings become questionable.
Treatment migration refers to problems in the delivery of treatment that result in biased
comparison groups. The wrong treatment is delivered to one or more groups, or different
treatment conditions are mixed. This sort of problem is surprisingly common and fiequently
unaddressed in evaluation studies, even those that attempt to use random assignment (Gartin,
1995). For example, Inciardi (1997:266) states: “Many of the so-called no treatment comparison
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This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not
been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.