Social support and one-year outcomes for women participating in prison-based substance abuse treatment programming

Abstract

In recent decades, the number of women under criminal justice supervision has increased considerably, many of whom are serving time for drug offenses. Furthermore, women in prison are more likely than their non-institutionalized counterparts to suffer from a substance abuse disorder. While there is a growing body of research concerning women offenders’ drug abuse and treatment needs, few studies have examined the substance abuse treatment outcomes of women in the criminal justice system. Using data from Outcome Evaluation of the Forever Free Substance Abuse Treatment Program, this study compared women’s self-reported drug use twelve months after participation in high-intensity (n = 101) and low-intensity (n = 81) prison-based substance abuse treatment programming (N = 182). Women who perceived high levels of emotional social support were less likely to report substance use at 12-month follow-up. Furthermore, perceptions of emotional social support and treatment intensity interacted in their association with relapse, such that the protective effect of social support was strongest for women who participated in high-intensity programming. The results of the analyses highlight the importance of perceived social support for women with substance abuse disorders who are transitioning from prison-based substance abuse treatment programming to the community.

Keywords:

• Women offenders
• social support
• drug abuse
• recidivism

Notes

1. The data collection periods were October 1997–June 1998 for Forever Free and April–November 1998 for Life Plan for Recovery.

2. Although a treatment outcome measure that incorporated both self-reported and toxicology testing would be preferable to a self-report measure alone (Donovan et al., 2012), the research staff only collected urine samples from a randomly selected subsample of 20% of participants who resided in the Los Angeles area, and the samples were not used to validate self-reported drug use (Prendergast et al., 2002).

3. The interaction between treatment intensity and instrumental social support on likelihood of substance abuse relapse was not statistically significant and was therefore dropped from the model. This exclusion did not substantively affect the results.