0 - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

programming per week (mean = 30 hr/wk) than any other program type. TC programs had been
in operation an average of nine years (range 8 to 11 years). The average inmatelstaff ratio for TC
was 1 : 17. TC Staff were also experienced and well educated: 41 % had a Bachelor’s Degree in
Psychology, Counseling, Social Work, or a related discipline, while 55% had a Master’s Degree.
TC treatment staff had an average of nine years direct AOD treatment experience, and had been
employed an average of 5 years with DOC.
Of the four major types of prison-based drug treatment (Education, Outpatient, TC, and
Ancillary), strongest treatment effects were thus expected in TC. It was possible to obtain an
acceptable sample size by pooling five therapeutic communities at different institutions, due to
their empirically demonstrated consistency across major programmatic dimensions (e.g., treatment
e
duration, intensity, and approach).
Based upon the results of the AOD treatment program survey, Temple researchers created
a Treatment Program Data Base, which incorporated critical dimensions of service delivery for
119 prison-based AOD programs, including data elements reflecting the intensity and type of
treatment services provided by each.
Inmate (TC Participant) Interview Form
We felt it would be worthwhile during our study to complete an additional, small sample
of interviews with inmate residents of the five TC programs. A valuable perspective of treatment
services provided can often be obtained fiom the targets of the intervention (Welsh and Harris,
2000). Inmates can provide personal accounts of why they were referred to the program, how
they perceived various types of TC groups, classes, and other treatment activities, and what
aspects of the program they felt were helphl or not helpful. We used the same interview schedule
utilized in our previous process evaluation (Welsh, 2000b); a copy is provided in Appendix 2.
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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.