WHICH INMATES PARTICIPATE IN PRISON TREATMENT PROGRAMS?

Abstract

This study was undertaken to learn more about the allocation of treatment resources in a prison setting. Questions addressed were: How many inmates need particular types of treatment? What predicts participation in alcohol, drug, job training, and education programs? Are inmates with certain characteristics left out of programs? Are analysis relies on interview data collected on over 10,000 state prison inmates, then weighted so that the results represent all 191,000 inmates in state prisons at the time of the 1974 survey. The results show that overall 40% of inmates nationwide participate in some treatment program while incarcerated. The author classified each inmate as to his need for four types of treatment-alcohol rehabilitation, drug rehabilitation, job training, and education. An inmate's "need for treatment" was then compared to the actual treatment he received. It was discovered that 22% of the inmates needed alcohol rehabilitation, 23% needed drug rehabilitation, 31% needed job training, and 68% needed further education. In comparing treatment need with treatment received, it was observed that about one in four or five inmates with identified needs participates in prison treatment programs related to his needs. The study examined several factors as to their association with treatment program participation. In relation to age, it was found that older inmates are more likely to receive needed alcohol treatment, whereas younger inmates more often receive education and job training. There was no association between age and participation in drug programs. In looking at the effects of race, it was discovered that given a group of inmates has a need for alcohol and drug treatment, whites are significantly more likely to receive alcohol treatment whereas blacks are more likely to receive drug treatment. The only prison program that appeared to be keyed to inmates close to the end of their sentence was job training: other programs were distributed evenly throughout an inamtes sentence. There was no association between an inmate's commitment offense and his participation in programs. As expected, the results showed that inmates having more than five years to serve have a greater chance of becoming involved in programs than inmates with shorter sentences. These long-termers are preponderantly found in job training programs. Contrary to some expectations, there was little association between the number of rimes an inmate had been previously incarcerated and his program participation rate. Further analysis of the combined effects of several inmate characteristics revealed interesting results. Controlling for the fact that an inmate needs alcohol treatment, his race will significantly effect whether he participates in the program-young, black inmates do not participate frequently. Older white inmates, regardless of prior record, are the most frequent participants in alcohol programs. The opposite is true for drug programs-black inmates participate more frequently, across all age and prior record categories.