A Randomized Clinical Trial of a Therapeutic Community Treatment for Female Inmates: Outcomes at 6 and 12 Months After Prison Release

Abstract

This random assignment study compared female offenders (n = 468) with substance use disorders in a prison therapeutic community program with those in a cognitive-behavioral intervention. The study demonstrates that all women benefitted from gender-sensitive prison treatment, but the therapeutic community was more effective in reducing drug use, criminal activity, and exposure to trauma and increasing mental health functioning and time until reincarceration during the year after prison. In addition, the ability to sustain and even improve behavior change after the women leave prison highlights the importance of providing accessible community-based continuity of mental health and substance abuse services during reentry.

KEYWORDS:

• Female offenders
• therapeutic community
• treatment
• outcomes
• profiles
• substance use disorders
• mental health
• trauma

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) #5 R01 DA014370-(01–05).