"To Improved Offender Outcomes:
Developing Responsive Systems for Substance-Abusing Offenders."
12 Steps to Changes in Policies and Practices

Targeting is probably one of the most difficult issues in corrections and criminal justice policies. To have an impact on recidivism and drug consumption, the focus should be on offenders who are both addicts as well as criminally active, and the criminal justice and treatment systems must work together to define the target population. The integration of treatment and criminal justice information requires agencies to share information gathered in their respective disciplines. Often, the treatment system does not have criminal justice information, other than self-reported criminal justice history. Conversely, criminal justice agencies often rely on the offender to report prior treatment experience and drug use patterns.

Recidivism reduction policies will require:

• developing priority populations for treatment programs based on risk-reduction principles;
• triaging available treatment slots for offenders who create harm in the community by their drug use and criminal behavior; and
• sharing information on risk and treatment factors

• First, the offender's criminal justice history may indicate that he or she is likely to be incarcerated for long periods of time. Targeting these offenders for treatment in jail or prison is likely to have little impact on crime in the community; treatment should be timed close to the offender's discharge date to ensure that he or she gets the most benefit from treatment services.
• Second, many pretrial offenders use participation in treatment to convince judges of the sincerity of their remorse, only to have them drop out of treatment after the criminal charge has been dismissed or the offender is placed on probation. The focus on the sentenced offender has several advantages, primarily that the offender is more likely to continue with treatment if it is part of the requirement of supervision; the offender is less likely to drop out of treatment; and the offender is more likely to be motivated to change his or her behavior over the long period of supervision.

From a clinical perspective, treatment should be targeted to offenders who will benefit from services. Sociopathic and criminogenic offenders are unlikely to benefit from most community-based substance abuse treatment programs; such offenders require specialized services.

Three other treatment issues are:

• the severity of drug use,
• types of drugs used and
• prior treatment experience.

Severity of drug use might be an indicator of need, with priority given to addicts who have daily habits, as opposed to those with less frequent usage patterns (binge behavior, weekly use). Similarly, the type of drug abused might also be an important factor in determining priority for treatment, given the knowledge that some types of addicts are more criminally active than others; a daily cocaine user might be higher priority for service than a less frequent user. Priority of services to criminally active offenders will focus resources on crime reduction. Finally, prior treatment experience might be a useful variable to determine the appropriateness of an offender for a particular type of program. Standardized instruments can ensure that treatment and criminal justice staff collect consistent information on clients, as well as make decisions based on agency priorities.