Evidence-Based Models for Substance Abuse Treatment in the Criminal Justice System
The United States currently incarcerates a higher percentage of its citizens than any other industrialized nation in the world. A majority of Americans who are incarcerated were taking drugs or drinking alcohol, or both, during the commission of their crimes, or were actively engaged in substance-abusing behaviors that resulted in their involvement with the criminal justice system. The costs that are associated with incarcerating these millions of convicts each year are staggering, making the need for cost-effective interventions that can help divert substance-abusing nonviolent offenders from the penal system into other, less expensive community-based alternatives. Likewise, from a strictly pragmatic perspective, treating existing substance abuse among prison populations using methods with proven efficacy just makes good business sense. To this end, this paper compares and contrasts two evidence-based substance abuse treatment models that have demonstrated efficacy in the criminal justice system. A discussion concerning how this model best fits in a given agency with respect to economic, human resource, therapist expertise, and other relevant factors is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
Today, there are almost eight million Americans in various correctional systems, and these populations have inordinately high rates of chronic medical and mental health issues, infections, sexually transmitted diseases, as well as substantial substance abuse disorders (Gondles, 2010). According to Grella, Hser, Teruya and Evans (2005), there has been a growing consensus among healthcare providers in recent years concerning the need to improve the quality and provide for better accountability by using evidence-based treatment interventions for substance abuse problems. In this regard, Gondles emphasizes that the criminal justice system has "a responsibility to society and to offenders to continue developing and evaluating efficient, effective, and cost-conscience methods of delivering valid, evidence-based treatment and programs" (2010, p. 6). In addition,...
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