1 - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

California Department of Corrections
Substance Abuse Delivery System
PROFilE OF THE INMATE SUBSTANCE ABUSER
Prior Commitments
Table 10 displays the commitment history of the male and female new admissions surveyed in
the sample who had a documented history of drug use. Data on prior commitments for the
total inmate population was unavailable.
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MALES. Of the males in the sample who had documented histories of substance abuse, 77.4
percent had no prior prison commitments, although 70.3 percent had one or more jail commitments.
Also, 53.6 percent had no prior local juvenile commitments, and two-thirds had no prior
California Youth Authority {CYA} commitments.
FEMALES. Of the females in the sample who had documented histories of drug use, 90 percent
had no prior prison commitments, although approximately 75 percent had been in jail one or
more times. Also, 50.4 percent had no prior local juvenile commitments, and 64.8 percent had
no prior CY A commitments.
Age
Table 11 displays and compares the age of the sample surveyed who had' a documented history
of drug use with the total institution population and parolees.
MALES. It is significant for the purpose of program planning that 31.2 percent of new
admissions with drug histories are under 25 years of age. 20.4 percent of the total inmate
population were under 25 years of age. The median age for the sample population was 28
compared to 30 for the entire CDC inmate population.
FEMALES. The female new admissions sample showed an interesting difference: unlike the men,
women with histories of substance abuse were spread through the age groups. Of the new
admissions 79 percent were under 34 years of age, compared with 68.7 percent of the total
female inmate population. The median age for the sample population was 30 compared to 31
for the entire CDC population.
RacelEthnicity
Table 12 displays the racial groups for the sample of new admissions surveyed who had a
history of drug use and the total institution population and parolees.
MALES. Of the sample surveyed, 27.3 percent were African/American males compared with 37
percent for the total inmate pC'lpulation. The percentage of white males for both groups was
similar. The percentage of Hispanic-Mexicans was higher for the sample surveyed than for the
total population: 37.9 percent compared with 28.5 percent, respectively. .
FEMALES. Both the sample group and the total ferltale inmate population was simiiar for all racial
groups.
FINAL 8: /J·PROFTLE.NAFI 03120192 111-16
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