Rehabilitation in Escambia County

1
Rehabilitation in Escambia County Making
Changes One Future at a Time

• Javier Leung and Kassy Tyler
• University of West Florida
• Educational Statistics III
• Dr. Carla Thompson

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Outline

• Introduction
• Purpose Statement
• Therapeutic Community
• Pathways for Change
• Research Questions
• Hypotheses
• Research Design
• Methodology
• Results
• Recommendations

3
Introduction

• The United States has 5 of the worlds
  population and 25 of the worlds inmate
  population.
• Pathways for Change (PFC) has created a program
  to effectively reduce recidivism one inmate at a
  time.
• Inmates are immersed into a Therapeutic Community
  to learn basic life skills, rebuild self -esteem
  and develop habits to become productive
  citizens.
• Objective to take personal responsibility and
  remove inmates dependency on drugs.

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Purpose Statement

• Substance abuse has been found to be a factor in
  recidivism.
• TCs provide a 24-hourper day peer group
  community.
• The 18-month therapeutic community program is
  offered to non-violent offenders with chemical
  dependency.

• The purpose of this study is to identify factors
  which contribute to successful completion of the
  Pathways for Change program.

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Therapeutic Community

• These communities are defined as a drug free
  residential treatment setting that uses a
  hierarchical model of peer influence (NIDA,
  2008).
• Governed by a strict set of rules monitored by
  peers who serve as key change agents
• In a 2000 report from the New York State
  Commission on drugs and the courts, retention
  rates of up to 70 were found at the one year
  mark for substance abusers when given a choice to
  enter a TC.

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Pathways for Change

• A faith-based therapeutic community
• An alternative sentencing option for non-violent
  offenders with substance dependency.
• Inmates are taught to break the cycle of
  destructive behavior following the three phase
  program

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Pathways for Change continued

• New pro-social skills through modeling, peers,
  practice and reinforcement is one of the
  treatment principles found by the NIC ( 2005).
• TC follows a model of treatment stages that
  incrementally increases an inmates level of
  personal and social responsibility (NIDA, 2002).
• Inmates may be released back to detention for
  non-compliance, abusive behavior, substance abuse
  and other anti-social actions.

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Pathways for Change continued

• PFC employs a very limited staff and does not
  have a dedicated fund raising professional.
• As a department of Baptist Health Care it is also
  limited to seeking funding through sources which
  are not of interest to the local hospitals
  development efforts.
• Future grant proposals showing results of the
  program will help in funding activities.

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Research Questions

• Which factors indicate a relationship in
  successful program completion for offenders who
  enter the PFC program?
• Which intervention factors contribute to
  successful program completion?
• Data available 1)clients ability to read and
  write, 2)choice to enter the treatment program,
  3)prescription drug use, 4)chemicals of
  dependency, 5)employment and 6)marital status.

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Hypotheses
1 H0 There is no relationship between court mandated admission and non-court mandated admission to the PFC program in regard to successful program completion.
H1 There is a relationship between court mandated admission and non-court mandated admission to the PFC program in regard to successful program completion.
2 H0 There is no relationship between income and successful program completion for clients in the PFC program.
H1 There is a relationship between income and successful program completion for clients in the PFC program.
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Hypotheses
3 H0 There is no relationship between prescription drug usage and successful program completion for clients in the PFC program.
H1 There is a relationship between prescription drug usage and successful program completion for clients in the PFC program.
4 H0 There is a relationship between clients ability to read/write and the length of time to successfully complete the PFC program.
H1 There is no relationship between clients ability to read/write and the length of time to successfully complete the PFC program.
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Hypotheses
5 H0 There is a relationship between employment prior to incarceration and successful program completion for clients in the PFC program.
H1 There is no relationship between employment prior to incarceration and successful program completion for clients in the PFC program.
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Research Design

• Action research design for analyzing documents
  provided by the program director.
• Variables of interest/funding demographics,
  recidivism, drug abuse, medication usage and
  family and employment status at the time a client
  is admitted.
• The team noted inconsistency in the coding of
  dichotomous variables.
• Recoding all variables for consistency.

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Research Design

• Additional documentation requested to fill gaps
  in the data.
• For analysis purposes, both male and female
  databases were combined.
• Additional variables based on literature length
  of time in the program, prescription drug use,
  graduation status and gender.
• Quantitative analyses using chi square and
  discriminant function analysis were performed.

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Results

• Significant Chi-Squares

Prescription Drugs and Graduation
chi square value of 18.250 (X2 18.250, p .00, p lt .05)
Court Mandated and Graduation
chi square value of 9.738 (X2 9.738 p .008, p lt.05)
Employed Prior Incarceration
chi square value of 7.528 (X2 7.528 p .023, p lt .05)
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Results

• Non significant Chi Squares
• Non significant Discriminant Analysis

Ability to write/read and graduation
chi square value of 3.621 (X2 3.621, p .164, p lt .05)
Participating in Court Mandated Program
chi square value of 4.575 (X2 4.575, p .102, p lt .05)
Income and Length of Program with Graduates and Non Graduates
Wilks lambda was not significant-A0.713, X2 (2, N 15) 4.061, p lt0.001.
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Results of Interventions

• Significant Chi Squares

Chemical Dependency Class
chi square value of 22.355 (X2 22.355 p .00, p lt .05)
Foundations of Living
chi square value of 20.166 (X2 20.166 p .00, p lt .05)
Business Technology
chi square value of 22.070 (X2 22.070 p .00, p lt .05)
Vocational Rehabilitation
chi square value of 11.657 (X2 11.657 p .003, p lt .05)
AA Support
chi square value of 18.433 (X2 18.433 p .00, p lt .05)
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Results of Interventions

• Non significant Chi Squares

Social Service Programming
chi square value of 1.449 (X2 1.449 p .485, p lt .05)
Vocational Technical Training Program
chi square value of 1.248 (X2 1.248 p .536, p lt .05)
Voluntary Involvement with PFC
chi square value of 4.028 (X2 4.028 p .133, p lt .05)
Skills in Carpentry
chi square value of 2.098 (X2 2.098 p .350, p lt .05)
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Recommendations

• A single feature of a program or an intervention
  does not reduce recidivism, however a unification
  of principles contribute to successful
  reintegration (NIC, 2005).

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Recommendations

• The mixture of client composition, staff
  experience, program age, size, resources, and
  leadership style in the management of TCs provide
  individual change as a part of the global impact
  of community life (De Leon , (2000), p. 9).
• Researchers and stakeholders need to understand
  how a convergence of interventions in treatment
  programs, skill training for staff, and
  evaluation of services delivered, influence
  participants behavioral changes and development
  of social skills.

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Recommendations

• Future research endeavors must keep in mind that
  the effectiveness of the program depends on
• Clearly articulated program
• An understandable statement of goals and
  outcomes
• A rational connection between goals and outcomes
  (Rutman, 1977).