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cjdats.html

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Updated:
April 7, 2009



Project Description
downarrow Phase 1 Activities
CJ-DATS Publications
Newsletter Stories
 TCU Criminal Justice (CJ) Forms
Feature Presentations by Simpson and Bartholomew from August 2008 CJ-DATS Collaborators Meeting in Fort Worth

 
Highlights

Current Title: Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies
Principal Investigator:  Kevin Knight, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator '02-'05:  D. Dwayne Simpson, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator:  Patrick M. Flynn, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist:  George W. Joe, Ed.D.
Clinical Training Coordinator:  Norma Bartholomew, M.A., M.Ed.
Graduate Research Assistant:  Jennifer Pankow, M.A., C.A.D.C.
Funded by:  National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Phase 1 Project Period: September 2002 to August 2008
Phase 2 Project Period: September 2008 to August 2013

Current Activity:
The IBR was selected in 2008 to continue its participation as a CJ-DATS Research Center in Phase 2 of the national multisite collaboration with NIDA.  It focuses on evidence-based assessments and interventions for offenders with drug-related problems.  Special attention is given to implementation and sustainability of innovations. 
   

CJ-DATS Project Description

In 2002, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded the “Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies” (CJ-DATS) cooperative agreement.  The Institute of Behavioral Research at Texas Christian University (TCU) was one of nine National Research Centers selected to study current drug treatment practices and outcomes in correctional settings and to examine strategies for improving treatment services for drug-involved offenders.  The primary mission of the project initially was to investigate key elements of corrections-based treatment systems in the U.S. and make recommendations for policies to enhance outcomes and improve the overall efficiency of treatment service delivery.  A key objective of this landmark project is the establishment of science-based evidence for the role of corrections-based treatment in reducing drug use and crime-related costs to society.

Research funded in 2008 as part of Phase 2 is expected to extend previous research and create a foundation for improving the quality of treatment services for drug-involved offenders.   In particular, it is intended to yield organizational- and systems-level studies on implementing and sustaining research-supported interventions across a continuum of care.   This work will include Co-Investigators from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Illinois Department of Corrections, and an additional network of 5 State criminal justice systems (AZ, IN, NE, NM, & VA), the Federal BOP, and 4 large agencies that provide CJ contract treatment services (Gateway Foundation, Westcare, CEC/CiviGenics, and Phoenix House).

Implementing research-based treatment practices in typical CJ settings faces a variety of clinical, administrative, organizational, and policy barriers. Furthermore, if the implementation solutions are expedient rather than systemic, the innovation may not be sustainable, regardless of its clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness.   An essential component of implementation research is organizational change, discussed in the literature that focuses on quality improvement, implementation and technology transfer, management science, and inter-organizational relationships or cross-agency collaboration.

The Texas Research Center at TCU has worked for several years with most of its CJCs to address a variety of concerns.   Most express a need for linking offender/client assessments dynamically to targeted treatment strategies in a manner that allows progress to be monitored, documented empirically, and “clinically managed” over time.   On the basis of their experiences in providing substance abuse treatment for over 50,000 offenders, these collaborating systems are interested in —

  1. Client assessments that inform care planning/delivery, stage progression, and client engagement/participation (i.e., program decision rules for treatment)
  2. Strategies that improve sequential client induction and adaptive programming
  3. Aggregated client assessments for staff feedback on ‘program functioning/ effectiveness’
  4. Organizational ‘readiness for change’ assessment/feedback for client care planning
  5. Program-level performance evaluations for management tools (i.e., staff and client information)
  6. Innovation implementation stage-based evaluations for tracking progress in making change
  7. Identification of between-system barriers for reentry care and supervision responsibilities

This represents a complex formulation of clinical tools (i.e., assessments and interventions), integrated applications based on user-friendly feedback of client needs and progress, and a supportive program structure.   Regardless of program size or focus, experiences so far suggest this requires (1) staff preparation and leadership support, (2) structural alignments and role assignments, (3) training with customized adjustments to settings, and (4) follow-up monitoring and feedback on implementation progress.   The conceptual model used to integrate this research on how programs adopt and implement innovations (Simpson, 2002; Simpson & Flynn, 2007) is likely to be refined and expanded for CJ settings by results of CJ-DATS.   Its heuristic value is expected to include benefits in explanatory value for helping treatment and reentry systems to understand the sometimes complicated process of how innovations become adopted and implemented, along with the factors that influence how well it is done and sustained.  

Summary of Phase 1 Activities in CJ-DATS

CJ-DATS Phase 1 included Research Centers at Brown University (Peter Friedmann, PI), University of California at Los Angeles (Michael Prendergast, PI), University of Connecticut (Linda Frisman, PI), University of Delaware (James Inciardi, PI), University of Kentucky (Carl Leukefeld, PI), University of Miami (Howard Liddle, PI), National Development and Research Institutes (Nancy Jainchill, PI, and Harry Wexler, PI), and TCU (Kevin Knight, PI)—as well as a Coordinating Center at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and University of Maryland (UMD) (Faye Taxman, PI) and NIDA collaborators (Bennett Fletcher).

The Texas Research Center at TCU had the lead role in carrying out two studies.  First, as part of the Performance Indicators for Corrections (PIC) study, a series of offender assessments for needs, performance, and reentry planning was designed and tested (see Simpson & Knight, 2007; guest editors of special issue for Criminal Justice & Behavior), and staff representing a dozen CJ-DATS collaborating correctional systems received training on their applications.  This work lead to the development of 1-page “optical-scan” forms for offender self-administration and on-site scoring (with immediate counselor feedback on results).  Each form is specialized (e.g., for drug use history/severity, motivation for treatment, psychological functioning, social functioning, criminal thinking, HIV/AIDS risks, and treatment engagement) and can be used to assess acute needs or (via repeated administrations) to track changes over time.  They are being used as part of the Phase 2 studies in CJ-DATS.

Second, to meet demands for flexible, evidence-based treatment materials, the CJ-DATS Targeted Interventions for Corrections (TIC) modules were developed at TCU.  These address topics such as anger management, social skills, changing thinking errors, HIV prevention, and motivation—and they can be used as stand alone modules or delivered in a series for a more wide-ranging treatment package.  The user-friendly lay-out of these materials, along with their “plug and play” format, allows for less demanding staff training.  Single-day training sessions at TCU prepared counselors working with the CJ-DATS Research Centers to use these materials, and a series of experimental studies were carried out and demonstrated. 

In addition to serving as lead on the PIC and TIC studies, the Texas Research Center at TCU participated in studies lead by other CJ-DATS Research Centers.  The Inmate Pre-Release Assessment (IPASS), under the leadership of the UCLA center, was designed to screen soon-to-be parolees to establish the level of care and supervision they will require after release.  This study explored how the IPASS can be used to help prioritize the aftercare requirements of graduates of in-prison substance abuse treatment programs and provided the foundations of ongoing work in Phase 2 of CJ-DATS.  The Criminal Justice Co-occurring Disorder Screening Instrument (CJ-CODSI) study, under the direction of the National Development and Research Institutes center, was designed as a brief, self-administered screening instrument for identifying individuals with co-occurring disorders.  Finally, the National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices Survey, led by VCU and UMD, was a national survey that provided estimates of the prevalence of certain treatment delivery practices within the criminal justice system.  These studies were reported in a special issue of Criminal Justice and Behavior (Simpson & Knight, 2007).

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CJ-DATS Publications

Knight, K., Garner, B. R., Simpson, D. D., Morey, J. T., & Flynn, P. M. (2006).  An assessment for criminal thinking.  Crime and Delinquency, 52(1), 159-177.  [Abstract]

Knight, K., & Simpson, D. D. (2006, Winter).   Treatment versus incarceration for substance-abusing offenders.   Cenikor News, 1(1), 2. [Abstract]

Sacks, S., Melnick, G., Coen, C., Banks, S., Friedmann, P. D., Grella, C., & Knight, K. (2007).  CJDATS Co-Occurring Disorders Screening Instrument for Mental Disorders (CODSI-MD):  A pilot study.  The Prison Journal, 87(1), 86-110.

Special Issue of Criminal Justice and Behavior (2007)

Simpson, D. D., & Knight, K. (Guest Eds.). (2007).   Offender needs and functioning assessments (Special Issue).   Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34(9).  
Abstract:  A major objective of CJ-DATS includes the study of how treatment effectiveness is achieved with regard to therapeutic, organizational, and managerial processes.   To this end, the CJ-DATS “Performance Indicators for Corrections (PIC)” multi-center protocol centered on studies of client performance indicators, focusing on the evaluation of the TCU Criminal Justice Client Evaluation of Self and Treatment (CJ CEST) and the NDRI Client Assessment Inventory (CAI) in diverse correctional settings.   This special issue describes these studies, representing one of the first of several sets of studies being prepared as part of CJ-DATS.

See also:


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CJ-DATS Newsletter Stories

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