Developing Comprehensive Prison-Based Therapeutic Community Treatment for Women

• NCJ Number: 175611
• Journal: Drugs & Society Volume: 13 Issue: 1/2 Dated: 1998 Pages: 193-212
• Author(s): D Lockwood; J McCorkel; J A Inciardi
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 20 pages
• Grant Number(s): 1 T100676-010001
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Although experience and research have affirmed treatment works for drug-involved offenders, adapting treatment models to drug-involved female offenders remains a challenge.

Abstract

One treatment modality, the therapeutic community (TC), has proven to be effective for women. Adaptations necessary to the TC model to make it appropriate and effective for drug-involved women are examined. Several themes are discussed, such as staffing structure, staff-client interactions, safety of the treatment environment, characteristics of the residential community, programming, and the treatment program's relationship with various social service agencies. In addition, program elements specific to effective TCs for women in the criminal justice setting are considered. Experiences of developing, implementing, and operating a specific TC for drug-involved female offenders are reported, based on the prison-based TC for women at the Delaware-Baylor Women's Correctional Institution. 34 references