Prison-Based Substance Abuse Case Study

1487 Words6 Pages

In criminology, the substance abuse treatments in prisons and jails are done a little more extensively as compared to the average ones. Moreover, the outcome evaluation of a prison therapeutic community is also different than non-program participants. However, according to Sobell, Sobell & Ward (2013), the treatments done in prison are harmful, yet quite more emotionally exhausting for the patients. These are the patients that are responsible for promoting high rate of crime and robbery.
By critically analyzing the discussion, it can also be predicted that the prison-based substance abusers need more effective treatment, hence it is difficult to execute as well. Also, the non-program participants are generally less harmful and mentally-ill. …show more content…

The dosage models in prison-based treatments are far better than the non-program ones, and hence result in positive solution. Such as whether the drug abuser must be arrested, not arrested, or his status should be considered as “completion of parole.” Another Stay’n Out approach has been adopted by these therapeutic communities; this hierarchal give the participants a highly structured, and well-established treatment environment. The participants are even provided with low-level jobs that keep them busy and …show more content…

Nonetheless, the treatments based on prison-based settings are unable to provide this feasibility. They are also often termed as the conservative approach to lead a drug abuse treatment. Hence, it is important for the participant to receive equal attention of mind, body and spirit in order to completely recover from a substance abuse problem. Also, treatment retention in non-program facilities are comparatively quite lesser than the prison-based environment. Even the prison based can find ways to make the experience more influential, engaging and effective in terms of impacting the psychology of an abuser, however the policy makers of such programs prefer to propose a conservative approach (Butler, Cassidy, Chilcoat, Black, Landau, Budman & Coplan, 2013).
3. Recidivism Rates in Substance Abuse Treatments
According to Tiedt & Sabol (2015), a number of researches have examined the recidivism rates of substance abuse treatments. These recidivism rates are usually observed by comparing prison-based drug abuse participants vs. the ones in probation or non-program settings.
No evidence of decrease in the rate was shown in imprisonment, however, high rates of recidivate and recidivism were found in the offenders who have been sentenced to prison. This tells that conservative and conducive environments result in more repetition of drugs usage as compared non-program

More about Prison-Based Substance Abuse Case Study