Jordon Peugh Drug Abuse

The two article I will be looking at in the paper are Steven Belenko and Jordon Peugh’s “Estimating Drug Treatment Needs Among State Prison Inmates” and James Inciardi, Steven Martin, and Clifford Butzin’s “Five-Year Outcomes of Therapeutic Community Treatment of Drug-Involved Offenders After Release From Prison.” Both articles look at drug abuse prevention programs implemented by prisons. Steven Belenko and Jordon Peugh’s article focuses on how some programs only focus on one aspect of treatment. This treatment mentality is ineffective since those who are first time abuser will need different treatment options compared to some who has been abusing drugs for several years and have already done time in prison. James Inciardi, Steven Martin,

To combat recidivism, “the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, and the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) worked together to develop the first ASAM Patient Placement Criteria.” (Belenko & Peugh, 2004) ASAM gave guidelines for patient placement of five treatment setting (early intervention to intensive inpatient treatment). Despite the popularity of this program, little evidence is known of the validity in term of treatments. Despite enrolling in these programs, success rates still suffer based on outside forces such as “educational deficits and sporadic work histories, which can affect long-term recovery and complicate the transition back to the community.” (Belenko & Peugh, 2004) This can be related to inmates not having marketable skills or limited employment opportunities which lead to relapse and parole violation. The article goes on to recreate a survey done in 1997 where inmates were randomly selected and interviewed and asked about their “current and past crimes, current and past incarcerations, prison infractions, drug and alcohol use, participation in substance abuse treatment and other programs in and out of prison, and socioeconomic characteristics.” (Belenko & Peugh, 2004) To measure the severity of drug use, the authors developed a five-point scale from least to most severe (one being “never used

Inciardi, Steven S. Martin, and Clifford A. Butzin’s “Five-Year Outcomes of Therapeutic Community Treatment of Drug-Involved Offenders
After Release From Prison.” This article starts by saying that, according to several drug abuse clinicians and sociologists have stated the importance of the therapeutic community, referred to as TC because it is the “most viable form of treatment for drug-involved offenders, particularly for those whose criminality has resulted in incarceration.” (Inciardi, Martin, Butzin, 2004) The authors state that TC is a treatment environment separate from the prison population and that primary staff members are ex-substance abusers who previously went through TC treatment. There are three effective stages incorporated into TC treatment intervention.

“The primary stage of treatment should consist of a prison-based therapeutic community (Inciardi et al., 1994). Segregated from the negativity of the prison culture, recovery from drug abuse, and the development of prosocial values in the prison.” (Inciardi et al., 2004)

This stage excludes family members, coworker, and neighbors because they want the inmates to focus on treatment and interactions with those who have struggled with addicts to help build prosocial values and work ethic. The second stage