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