Treatment at the front end of the criminal justice continuum: the association between arrest and admission into specialty substance abuse treatment

Abstract

Background: To reduce criminal recidivism and drug use, it has been proposed that the substance abuse treatment delivery system cut across different components of the criminal justice continuum. Arrest, at the front end of this continuum, may represent a critical moment to motivate people with substance use disorders (SUD) to seek treatment but is often over looked as an intervention point. We used data from the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to compare treatment need and recent treatment admission for participants with no criminal justice (CJ) involvement in the past year, past-year arrest, and CJ supervision (i.e., probation or parole status).

Characterizing longitudinal health state transitions among heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine users

“…Use of medication-assisted treatments for opioid dependence during the period when incarcerated individuals reenter the community is uncommon (Friedmann et al, 2012). Arrest and incarceration are underutilized opportunities for early intervention or treatment diversion strategies (Kubiak et al, 2006). New initiatives for infectious disease control provide optimism for jail- and prison-based drug treatment interventions (Rich et al, 2011).…”

The effect on problematic drinking behavior of a brief motivational interview shortly after a first arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol

“…The criminal justice system infrequently involves treatment for substance use disorders, with one recent national survey finding that only 14% of arrestees with such a disorder received treatment within a year of arrest. 15 Application of motivational interviewing in particular to this setting has been quite limited 16 perhaps because of limited resources, the coercive nature of criminal justice, and its emphasis on penalization rather than treatment. When treatment is available, such *Results for the AUDIT component scores are presented as the number of levels of difference in the ordinal scale of the component between the treatment arms (BI relative to control), with positive numbers indicating more problematic drinking behavior.…”

“…Although some investigators have evaluated the effect of BIrelated counseling as part of court-ordered treatment following DUI conviction, these studies have not produced conclusive results. 11Y14 Furthermore, BIs may offer the greatest benefit acutely following DUI arrest, 15 rather than months later when the stress of the event has abated and the individual may have been influenced by legal counsel. 16 We therefore sought to evaluate the effect of BI counseling administered shortly after an individual's first DUI arrest.…”

Anxiety and Suicidal Ideation Predict Successful Completion of Substance Abuse Treatment in a Criminal Justice Sample

“…Bureau of Justice Statistics, BJS, 2006a;Kubiak, Arfken, Swartz, & Koch, 2006). Although the persistence of SUDs is associated with increased rates of recidivism (Walter et al, 2011), treating these disorders reduces repeated criminal behavior, benefiting both the criminal justice population and society as a whole (Peters & Murrin, 2000).…”