Arrest and incarceration provide motivation for drug treatment not otherwise present in the community. Yet some persons with addictive disorders do not avail themselves of treatment, or leave treatment prematurely, or do not sustain long-term benefit from treatment. Recent evidence suggests that programs and services that better integrate the treatment community with the criminal justice system are likely to yield better clinical outcomes. The Connecticut Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Service (CT CJ-DATS) Initiative will create a partnership to empirically test integrated services and treatment in Connecticut, where the judicial and correction systems are state-operated, and interagency relationships have been developing for several years. The initiative will be overseen by a state-level steering committee composed of high-level state and community agency managers, and a research team including expertise in behavioral health, economics, and criminal justice, and with experience in multi-site collaborative research. We propose two examples of studies that could be led by the CT CJ-DATS team. First, for women offenders with co-occurring trauma and drug disorders, we propose a randomized controlled trial comparing a novel group treatment approach of substance abuse and trauma treatment called TARGET, compared to substance abuse treatment alone. We hypothesize that integrated treatment for trauma and drug abuse will improve outcomes with regard to substance abuse and criminal behavior. Second, for drug dependent or drug abusing defendants referred by the court system, including probation officers, we propose to test a model treatment called Network Support, which would emphasize the development of a positive social support network. Four conditions will be compared: (1) substance abuse treatment alone;(2) substance abuse treatment with contingency management;(3) substance abuse treatment with network support;and (4) substance abuse treatment with network support and contingency management. We hypothesize that using both network support and contingency management will result in the best outcomes with respect to reduced drug use and continuous abstinence.
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