Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This article investigated the association between the organizational predictors of women in substance abuse treatment including (1) female programming & services, (2) female-specific treatment tracks, (3) personnel characteristics, (4) funding sources, and (5) organizational structural characteristics. Data for this exploratory study were derived from the National Treatment Center Study (NTCS), which provided a unique opportunity to explore these organizational-level features across three treatment settings – therapeutic communities (n=210), publicly funded centers (n=291), and private treatment facilities (n=176). Results of the three OLS models indicated that the organizational predictors of the percentage of women in treatment varied by the type of treatment setting studied. While therapeutic communities, publicly funded centers, and private facilities all had comparable percentages of women engaged treatment (between 38-40 percent), the organizational model seemed to the fit the data best in the therapeutic community model, followed by the publicly funded sample. The bulk of the variance in both the TC sample and the Public sample was accounted for by the presence of a female-specific treatment track and the percentage of female counselors. Only two variables in the Private model were significantly associated with higher percentages of women in treatment. Specifically, private centers treating psychiatric disorders and employing greater percentages of counselor’s with at least a Master’s degree had significantly more females composing their clientele base.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Drug Treatment Courts (DTC) in Canada integrate drug treatment services with the structures of the criminal justice system in attempts to reduce criminal behaviour and disease prevention, create better use of jail facilities and to ensure public safety. Upon admittance to the program clients must plead guilty, vocalize their addiction in court and consequently are forced to comply with several bail conditions, including but not limited to a curfew and spatial boundaries. These boundaries, which are the main focus of this paper, are allocated by the Crown and designate which neighbourhoods clients may or may not enter. Transgressing these boundaries leads to a violation of bail conditions and potential expulsion from DTC. The spatial and racial implications of these boundaries are the focal point of this paper. What precisely is the purpose of these spatial boundaries? Do they help addicts avoid drug use or do they further criminalize racialized poor neighbourhoods? Using court observations from DTC’s in Toronto and Vancouver from 2004-2006 I will question the purpose of these boundaries and explore how urban spaces are affected by these bail conditions. This paper will examine how DTC boundaries reinforce the colonial violence of law in space, how they further displace already visible and marked bodies and how they reinforce ‘zones of degeneracy’. Overall, this paper will develop an understanding of the post-colonial territoriality of seemingly progressive treatment programs within Canada’s Criminal Justice System.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this research, based on a secondary analysis of drug treatment data, female recidivism is examined in light of an institutional substance abuse program in a Midwestern women’s prison. Secondary data includes women who were incarcerated in the facility from 1997 to 2002 that were not released to another correctional institution, penitentiary or jail. The study compares the criminal justice outcomes of female offenders who participated or completed against those who were not selected or refused participation. The analysis will observe how the specific program and inmate participation influenced levels of recidivism.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The primary purpose of this project was to assess the frequency of within treatment drinking in a sample of patients undergoing a brief substance abuse treatment program that mandated within treatment abstinence. A secondary purpose of this project was to assess differences between within treatment drinkers and abstainers. The sample consisted of 280 patients in an outpatient substance abuse treatment program based out of a large military hospital. All patients signed a contract at the beginning of treatment in which they agreed to remain abstinent throughout the course of the program. Patients’ substance use during treatment was assessed via an anonymous survey on the last day of treatment. The findings revealed that nineteen percent of patients engaged in within treatment drinking at least once during treatment. Eighty seven percent of the drinkers kept their alcohol use hidden from their counselor. Within treatment drinkers were no more likely than abstainers to have been court ordered to treatment, and no more likely to describe their attendance in treatment as coerced. The findings suggest that a significant minority of patients drink during brief treatment, even in treatment programs that mandate abstinence.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Many offenders have co-occurring disorders involving mental illness, addiction, and trauma. These experiences may result in a stigmatized identity and often lead people to treatment. Yet, people with co-occurring disorders describe what helps them make positive life transformations in many ways. Sometimes treatment is involved; in more cases than not, other supports are described. This study investigates how individuals with co-occurring disorders do or do not use treatment as they make positive life transformations. While prison is not considered as a formal treatment for treatment’s sake, the criminal justice system is involved in this conversation as it is a common point of contact for these individuals. A sample of 36 persons with one or more of the qualifying experiences described a time when their lives changed for the better. A comprehensive understanding of the identity, trauma, treatment and recovery literature support the findings that treatment is but one part of the recovery process.