Effects of Manualized Treatment in a Seamless System

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Effects of Manualized Treatment in a Seamless System builds on an existing body of work to examine treatment delivery issues within the context of probation supervision services. This particular study is designed to assess the efficacy of a seamless service delivery system with a specialized manualized treatment curriculum (the Strategies for Self-Improvement and Change-- SSIC) on offender outcomes (e.g. reduced recidivism and technical violations, improved social adjustment, improved treatment progress, and so on). Offenders will be randomized according to one of three conditions: seamless system with a manualized curriculum delivered on-site at the supervision office (SM), seamless system with treatment referral (SR), and traditional criminal justice supervision approach (TS). Blocking will occur on a measure of offender risk to understand the differential impact of the interventions on different types of offenders (high or moderate-risk) which allows for the testing of hypotheses about differential impact of the different practices for providing treatment services to offenders. Included in the analysis will be measures of system and service integration to understand the impact of these features on offender outcomes. Data will be collected on potential moderators of the relationship between program procedures and program effectiveness, including background and demographic factors (e.g., addiction severity, criminality, readiness for change, prior treatment history, prior criminal justice history) and psychosocial characteristics of the client (e.g., depression, motivation to change, treatment progress, self-efficacy, etc.). The study site is in Baltimore County Maryland. Study subjects will be probationers with substance abuse disorders. The study will use the randomized block experimental design to test hypotheses about the impact of the seamless system, with designated clinical programming (SM) and with traditional community outpatient programming (SR), in comparison to receiving traditional supervision services (TS), on offender and system outcomes including treatment progress. The study will contribute to the field significantly by advancing our knowledge of practices that improve the delivery of treatment services to offenders in the community. Further the study will address a gap in the field regarding the use of holistic approach to treatment services that addresses both substance abuse and criminal thinking behaviors.