NCJ Number
169251
Date Published
1998
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This chapter evaluates Amity and other prison drug treatment programs.
Abstract
Prison drug treatment programs include encounter groups that encourage prisoners to study the roots of their drug problems and that teach them to become drug-free. The success of a few of these programs, which have significantly reduced both illegal drug use and reincarceration rates, has spurred an expansion of drug treatment programs in prisons. One of the successful programs discussed in this chapter is the Amity program at Donovan, a medium-security prison east of San Diego, CA. It is a therapeutic community where 220 participants share a dormitory, dining facilities and recreation areas for 9 to 12 months. Upon release from prison, graduating parolees can volunteer to continue taxpayer-funded counseling at Amity¦s residential off-site program in north San Diego County. At both facilities convicts are required to attend a program of seminars and encounter groups that attempt to dissect, with brutal honesty, what caused their substance abuse and criminal behavior. The California Department of Corrections estimates that, if Amity treats 2,100 inmates over 7 years at a cost of $1.5 million a year, taxpayers would recoup the program's expenses and save $4.7 million in prison costs as the result of reduced recidivism.