0 - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

While appropriate statistical controls andlor matching are required to adjust for these
initial selection differences,” results shown in Table 6 clearly indicate that the majority of inmates
in the sample, regardless of program type, were classified as high-need. We thus have a fortunate
situation in terms of research design (i.e., many high-need inmates are present in programs of
dramatically different treatment dosages), but an unfortunate one in terms of responsivity (i.e.,
there are simply not enough TC beds to assign all high-need inmates to high-intensity treatment
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programs, with the result that many inmates must receive some form of less intensive treatment).
Analytic Approach
Following previous efforts established through this research partnership, two
comprehensive databases were assembled: one inmate-specific, the other program-specific
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(Welsh, 2000% 2000b). These databases guided post-release inmate tracking and analyses of
relationships between treatment process and outcomes. We were thus able to track an inmate
before, during, and after treatment, and we were able to factor into our analyses individual inmate
characteristics as well as programmatic variations (e.g., treatment intensity and duration) that
could influence treatment outcomes. This approach should help advance our ability to separate
individual from contextual (programmatic) factors that idhence treatment.
Analyses of outcome employed several techniques including multivariate analysis of
variance, logistic regression and survival analyses. For example, we examined various withinsubject
changes over time (e.g., improvement in psychological functioning, changes in inmate
participation in treatment), as well as between-subjects factors (e.g., programmatic features) that
may influence treatment process and outcomes. Logistic regression was usefbl for examining
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l9 Criminal history and level of substance abuse problem often drive observed outcomes for this
popuIation (Andrews et al., 1990; Bonta, 1996; Farabee et al., 1999; Fletcher and Tims, 1992;
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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.