Faculty Bibliography

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of 35 evaluations on community-based prisoner reentry programs that have been published in the past decade, between 2000 and 2010, evaluating 29 different programs. We were surprised by the small number of studies available in the literature considering the magnitude of the problem and its implications for correctional budgets, community safety, and prisoner rehabilitation. The most commonly found reentry program features were life skills and substance abuse treatment. Programs with aftercare and housing assistance were most likely to produce favorable outcomes. Most studies located in this narrative analysis used quasi-experimental designs; few employed random assignment. The vast majority of studies found in peer-reviewed journals reported favorable outcomes. Quasi-experimental studies were also far more likely to find positive outcomes than studies using random assignment. We conclude by offering some suggestions for future research. © 2013 Georgia State University.

This cross-sectional study of 540 homeless ex-offenders exiting prisons and jails assessed sociodemographic, childhood, and drug-related differences. Older ex-offenders from prison were more likely to have been married, come from a two-parent family, and used crack, whereas younger ex-offenders from prison were more likely to have used methamphetamine. Older ex-offenders from jail were more likely to be African American, have children, and report a history of crack and injection drug use, whereas younger ex-offenders from jail were more likely to have engaged in binge drinking and be in a gang. Our findings showcase the need to understand unique correlates of younger and older incarcerated populations.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:This study assessed the role of 14 specific relapse-prevention activities and their underlying factors in maintaining abstinence among subjects (N = 302) completing outpatient treatment for stimulant dependence. METHODS:We examined what broader dimensions might subsume the 14 items constituting the Drug Avoidance Activities checklist (Farabee et al. J Subst Abuse Treat 2002;23:343-350), and how well these derived factors predicted concurrent drug use at baseline and again 3 and 12 months later. RESULTS:Although four factors were identified consistently for the three time points, only avoidance strategies had sufficient internal consistency to be retained for further analysis. Controlling for age, gender, and ethnicity, the avoidance subscale was a significant predictor of UA results at all time periods: a one-point increase in the avoidance strategies scale was associated with an 86% increase in odds of a negative UA at baseline (OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.37-2.53, p < .001), a 77% increase at 3-month follow-up (OR = 1.77, CI = 1.37-2.29, p < .001), and a 37% increase at 12-month follow-up (OR = 1.37, CI = 1.04-1.81, p = .026). CONCLUSIONS:Although correlations of individual items with UA results showed statistically significant (p < .05) results for 8 of 14 items at one or more observation points, avoidance-related behaviors showed the strongest associations with sustained abstinence.

The continuing development and refinement of empirically supported interventions to increase participation in posttreatment care and promote sustained abstinence from illicit drug use is a priority for the addictions field. The purpose of this study was to assess the combined and relative effectiveness of four types of counseling styles, delivered by telephone, relative to a no call control condition. Stimulant users (N = 302) were randomized to one of four low-cost, telephone support protocols (unstructured/nondirective, unstructured/directive, structured/nondirective, structured/directive) or a standard referral to aftercare without telephone counseling (control). All of the study participants were nearing the completion of (or had completed) an intensive phase of structured, outpatient stimulant abuse treatment. Drug use and aftercare participation were assessed at 3 and 12 months following randomization. Intent-to-treat analyses showed no significant time-by-group interactions for these primary outcomes. Subsequent analyses, however, revealed a significant difference between the aggregated call groups and the control group at the time of the 3-month follow-up. The mean ASI drug use severity composite score for subjects in the call conditions declining from .058 at baseline to .048 at 3 months, whereas the no call/control group average score increased from .053 to .062 (χ (1) = 4.95, p = .026). A similar-and slightly stronger-effect was found when the study sample was restricted to those reporting any use during the month prior to the baseline interview (n = 152). This study provides modest support for the telephone-based counseling approaches strategies examined in this project. Subsequent research will assess interactions between patient characteristics and counseling styles, and improved identification of which treatment graduates might be more likely to benefit from this type of continuing support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

OBJECTIVE:This study examined the impact of the interaction between patient reactance and treatment directiveness on the effectiveness of telephone aftercare for methamphetamine dependence. METHOD/METHODS:Reactance was assessed at baseline, and participants were randomly assigned to directive or nondirective treatment conditions. Logistic regression tested for the significance of the interaction as a predictor of 3-month and 12-month use of methamphetamine and stimulants. RESULTS:A significant interaction was observed at the 3-month follow-up, in which the directive condition was less effective for patients higher in reactance and was more effective for patients lower in reactance. Among patients at a high level of reactance, the nondirective condition increased the likelihood of abstinence. CONCLUSIONS:This study suggests that, in the context of telephone-based care, directive interventions offer short-term clinical benefit for methamphetamine users who readily accept influence from authority figures, whereas nondirective interventions offer benefit for patients who do not readily accept influence. The short-term nature of these effects indicates that there is a need for brief but ongoing telephone support to maintain treatment gains.

The fields of addiction medicine and addiction research have long sought an efficient yet comprehensive instrument to assess patient progress in treatment and recovery. Traditional tools are expensive, time consuming, complex, and based on topics that clinicians or researchers think are important. Thus, they typically do not provide patient-centered information that is meaningful and relevant to the lives of patients with substance use disorders. To improve our ability to understand patients' progress in treatment from their perspectives, the authors and colleagues developed a patient-oriented assessment instrument that has considerable advantages over existing instruments: brevity, simplicity, ease of administration, orientation to the patient, and cost (none). The resulting Treatment Effectiveness Assessment (TEA) elicits patient responses that help the patient and the clinician quickly gauge patient progress in treatment and in recovery, according to the patients' sense of what is important within four domains established by prior research. Patients provide both numerical responses and representative details on their substance use, health, lifestyle, and community. No software is required for data entry or scoring, and no formal training is required to administer the TEA. This article describes the development of the TEA and the initial phases of its application in clinical practice and in research.

This study used baseline data on recently released paroled men who are homeless (N=157), residing in a residential drug treatment program, and enrolled in a longitudinal study to examine personal, developmental, and social correlates of parolees who are homeless and who have committed serious violent offenses. Having experienced childhood sexual abuse, poor parental relationships, and early-onset incarceration (prior to 21 years of age) were important correlates of serious violent crimes. These findings highlight the need for interventions that address offenders' prior adult and childhood victimization and suggest that policies for reentering violent offenders should encompass an understanding of the broader family contexts in which these patterns of maltreatment often occur.