NCJ Number
171840
Date Published
1998
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper describes the Vera Institute of Justice's new demonstration project, La Bodega de la Familia, a drug treatment program dedicated to building family support around the offender through family case management.
Abstract
To reduce treatment failure and to prevent future generations from entering the cycle of drugs and crime, family- focused drug treatment is required. A broad range of social service research findings shows the value of the family as a unit in facilitating the achievement of behavioral goals for individual family members. The justice system has attempted to focus on the families of drug users through drug courts, therapeutic communities, home visits by parole officers, and family day in jail and prison. The system as a whole, however, is not equipped to incorporate the family into the recovery process from start to finish. La Bodega, which was opened in October of 1996, is dedicated to building family support around the offender through family case management. First, La Bodega works to address the negative impact of substance abuse on families. Second, support of the family aims at improving the offender's success in treatment and reducing the use of incarceration to punish relapse. Third, by helping families to realize their natural strengths, La Bodega aims to prevent multigenerational use of drugs and involvement with crime among other family members. By working in partnership with government, La Bodega hopes to restore confidence in drug treatment and show the efficacy of family case management as a drug treatment modality. 18 references