Disrupting the drug-crime nexus: a quasi-experimental evaluation of a substance use treatment program

To help substance using populations, many jails across the United States offer drug counseling programs. Since many are not following principles of effective treatment though, such as adopting the therapeutic community (TC) model approach, they have largely been unsuccessful in reducing recidivism. A county jail in Tennessee recently instituted a substance abuse counseling program that treats males and females separately, and that conforms to TC-model guidelines. To determine its effects on re-arrests, two quasi-experiments were conducted. The first compared males (n = 456) and females (n = 110) in their respective treatment and control conditions who were matched only according to eligibility criteria. The second compared more equivalent males (n = 306) and females (n = 76) using propensity score matching. Negative binomial regression analyses revealed reductions in re-arrests, but only in the second quasi-experiment. These results send a clear message to policymakers and jail administrators alike: substance abuse programs grounded in therapeutic community principles can reduce recidivism—but only when they target the populations most primed to benefit.