0 - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

8% lower reincarceration rate compared to control subjects when program hilures were included
in calculations of recidivism (Austin, 1998).
The Stay’n Out Program
The Stay’n Out Program was established in New York in 1977 (Wexler, Falkin, Lipton,
and Rosenbaum, 1992). Treatment was provided by New York Therapeutic Communities, Inc.
(staffed by a group of ex-offenders, all recovering addicts), using a modsed Phoenix House
model. The program was evaluated in a study of 1,626 male and 398 female inmates, beginning in
1984 (Wexler, Falkin, and Lipton, 1990; Wexler, Falkin, Lipton, and Rosenbaum, 1992). Major
objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness of prison-based TC treatment and assess the “timein-program”
hypothesis @e., length of stay was nine to twelve months rather than three).
Inmates in the Stay’n Out group were compared with two other groups in a nonequivalent
control group design: inmates who volunteered for the TC program but who for
various administrative reasons never participated (the “no-treatment controls”) and inmates
similar to those in Stay’n Out but who participated in other types of prison-based drug use
treatment programs (counseling and milieu therapy) (Wexler, Fa@
and Lipton, 1990). The
samples were comparable except that the male milieu group had a significantly higher mean age
and criminal history score and spent more time in prison than the other male groups. The samples
of inmates were selected fiom those released fiom prison between 1977 and 1984. The follow-up
period, which ended in 1986, therefore ranged fiom 2 years to 9 years, depending on the year of
release.
Groups were compared on several recidivism measures: rearrest rates, the mean number of
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months until arrest, parole success rates, and reincarceration rates. Researchers found that the
rearrest rate for the male TC treatment group (27%) was significantly lower than all male
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This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not
been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.