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Community Reentry after Prison Drug Treatment: Learning from Sheridan Therapeutic Community Program Participants

NCJ Number
238468
Author(s)
Jessica Reichert; Dawn Ruzich
Date Published
January 2012
Length
87 pages
Annotation
This report from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority presents the results of an evaluation that examined the effectiveness of a prison drug treatment program in improving community reentry for offenders.
Abstract
Key findings from the evaluation of the Sheridan Correctional Center National Model Drug Prison and Reentry Program include the following: among program participants, 60 percent felt the program improved their chances of success, 84 percent reported an easier time in finding housing, and 76 percent reported having a job at some point following completion of the program; on average, program participants spent 2 years in the community before returning to prison; 56 percent of participants reported having illegal sources of income following release while almost 90 percent reported relapsing into drug or alcohol use following release; and many factors were identified that were associated with length of time to relapse to drug or alcohol use and recidivism. This report from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority presents the results of an evaluation of a prison drug treatment program aimed at improving community reentry for offenders. Data for the study were obtained from a sample of 50 reincarcerated men who had successfully completed the in-prison phase of the drug treatment program while at the Sheridan Correctional Center. The drug prison and reentry program at Sheridan is a modified therapeutic community that requires participants to have increasing level of responsibility and stages of treatment along with a reliance on peers to help them learn and assimilate to social norms. This evaluation found that the Sheridan program is effective at reducing recidivism and improving offender's chances for successful reentry. Tables, figures, references, and appendixes