Health

Treatment Helps Women Not Return to Prison

By Buddy T, About.com GuideJune 8, 2011

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Research continues to show that effective alcohol and drug treatment programs can be used to reduce growing prison populations and help keep convicts on parole from returning to prison. Canadian researchers have found that this is particularly true of female prisoners who participate in drug treatment programs immediately after being released.

Females not involved in a post-release treatment program were much more likely to return to prison within one year, the study found.

The study, led by Flora Matheson of St. Michael's Hospital, was an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Community Relapse Prevention and Maintenance program developed in 2003 by the Correctional Service of Canada.

The program included 20, two-hour group sessions each week. Of the women in the program 58.9% used cocaine and 44.3% used crack cocaine.

10 Times More Likely to Return

Females who were not involved with the program, or any program, were 10 times more likely to be sent back to prison within a year. One-third of the women not in the program were returned to prison within six months.

Matheson said women are particularly vulnerable to drug relapse during the first two or three weeks after their release from prison. Therefore, it's important that they become involved in a support program as soon as possible.

"We don't want these women re-offending, we want them to remain in the community and be successful," said Matheson in a news release.

Matheson said about one-third of female prisoners are convicted of drug-related crimes. Therefore, they are twice as likely to have unstable housing, less able to handle stress and treated more often for mental health issues.

^{Source: Matheson, F.I., et al. "Community-Based Aftercare and Return to Custody in a National Sample of Substance-Abusing Women Offenders." American Journal of Public Health June 2011.}

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