Treatment retention of dually diagnosed offenders in an institutional therapeutic community

Abstract

This study investigated treatment retention in an institutional therapeutic community (ITC) for dually diagnosed male inmates. Twenty‐five percent of admissions successfully completed the residential substance abuse treatment program. Graduates participated for an average of 9 months, while terminations participated for nearly 4 months. One‐third of the terminations participated for at least 3 months and 15% participated for 6 months or more. A striking result was the relationship between retention and risk ratings and psychopathy scores. Both measures assess behavior and interaction styles over a range of situations. The presence of a single type of negative behavior (i.e. the nature of the committing offense) did not predict completion, but a rating based on multiple samples of behavior was a significant predictor of retention. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.