Implementing Evidence-Based Drug Treatment in Criminal Justice Settings

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application proposes a by-invitation conference to address current issues in identifying, implementing, disseminating, and sustaining evidence-based practice (EBP) in drug treatment in the criminal justice system (CJS). The 1.5 day conference will be held in Philadelphia, PA under the direction of the Center on Evidence-based Interventions for Crime and Addiction (CEICA), housed at the Treatment Research Institute. The conference will bring together a selected and diverse group of 70 researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. The overall goals are to identify and inform the unique challenges for expanding access to effective evidence-based treatment for drug-involved offenders, and to explore how the clinical practice perspective can inform the identification and successful implementation of EBP. The conference will include plenary sessions, targeted discussions, workshops, and action plan development. Anticipated products include a summary of conference proceedings, a special journal issue, a review article on EBP for CJ drug treatment by the CEICA co-directors, the formation of targeted work groups, and two follow-up web conferencing meetings to discuss conference findings and next steps. The content and direction of the conference will be guided in part by CEICA's focus on incorporating practitioner and client perspectives for understanding EBP implementation and sustainability, and CEICA's experiences in developing several evidence-based review projects in collaboration with three national practitioner organizations. The 12 conference workshops (1.25-1.5 hours each) will be convened in six time slots. Topics include establishing criteria for EBP, dissemination/training issues, diffusion and sustainability, clinical trials vs. clinical practice, the consumer perspective, defining outcomes, treatment/public health vs. CJS perspectives, targeted interventions, and efficacy vs. effectiveness in the CJS. In each workshop, a primary presenter and two secondary presenters will include a researcher, practitioner, and policy maker. Ex-offenders and persons in recovery will also be represented at each workshop so that the client perspective is integrated into all discussions. Participants will be randomly assigned to each workshop to ensure equal numbers of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. A unique aspect of this conference is the active engagement of CJ treatment stakeholders in discussion with researchers, focusing on the challenges of implementing and integrating EBP treatment in the CJS. As a result, stakeholders will be better positioned to understand EBP and initiate changes in practice, and new research needs can be identified to address gaps in CJ treatment EBP and its dissemination and sustainability. Plenary and "wrap-up" sessions will be conducted in a town meeting format that will focus on distilling the key consensus issues that arise from the workshop discussions, and maximize participant input. TRI's experience in planning and administering targeted conferences, its highly regarded website, and demonstrated publication productivity will help ensure successful implementation, as well as post-conference impact.