NCJ Number
183180
Journal
Alternatives to Incarceration Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 2000 Pages: 16-18
Editor(s)
Thomas S. Kapinos
Date Published
2000
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) is a highly structured, cognitive behavioral group approach that can be used effectively to treat driving while intoxicated (DWI) offenders.
Abstract
In this long-term evaluation of outcome data on MRT-treated DWI offenders, treatment on an alcohol treatment unit (ATU) was integrated within routine therapeutic community activities and included MRT groups. Between February 1988 and January 1989, 115 multiple DWI offenders participated in and were released from the ATU. Non-treated controls included 65 multiple DWI offenders who applied to the ATU but did not enter due to limited bed space. In November 1998, a computer search was done on local and national arrest records of the 115 participants and 65 controls. The reincarceration rate of treated offenders was 44.35 percent, compared to 61.54 percent for controls. Only 13.8 controls showed clean records, compared to 25.2 percent of treated offenders. About 66 percent of treated offenders and 74 percent of controls had arrests for offenses other than DWI. Treated offenders showed a 37.4- percent DWI rearrest rate, compared to 36.9 percent of controls. Results were somewhat disappointing in that both treated offenders and controls showed the same basic DWI arrest rates from 3.5 to 10 years after release. 5 figures