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Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

News Release	Contact: Leah Young
January 27, 1999	301-443-5052

To facilitate these cooperative arrangements, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment has produced a Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) entitled Continuity of Offender Treatment for Substance Use Disorders From Institution to Community.

This TIP, number 30 in a series, is designed to help substance abuse professionals and criminal justice professionals create transitions for offenders being released from prisons or jails. The consensus panel that created the document emphasized that without this collaboration the offender is likely to regress into substance abuse and crime, and eventually go back to prison.

"These new guidelines we are releasing today go hand-in-hand with President Clinton's recently announced initiative to help states and communities with increased federal funding and support to break the cycle of crime and drugs," said SAMHSA Administrator Nelba Chavez, Ph.D. "Close coordination of sentencing practices for offenders with treatment goals can provide positive reinforcement for offenders to stay in treatment after incarceration and break the cycle of a return to substance abuse and crime in the community. The evidence clearly shows that those who remain in treatment longer-term are much more likely to break that destructive cycle and overcome addiction to alcohol and drugs," she said.

"Less than 13 percent of the offender population identified as needing treatment receives this treatment," said CSAT Director H. Westley Clark, M.D., J.D., M.P.H. "Yet data show that recidivism is reduced when inmates receive substance abuse treatment. Offenders need treatment both while incarcerated and during their transition to the community. This is the best way to protect the community because it reduces a return to drugs and criminal behavior."

The new guidelines call for treatment professionals in jails and prisons and community providers "to reach beyond traditional roles and service boundaries by brokering services across systems, sharing information, and facilitating the treatment process."

TIP 30 further recommends:

• Assessing offenders for drug and alcohol abuse when they enter jail or prison, during their in-facility treatment, and three to six months prior to release.

• Creating a transition plan for appropriate continued treatment to prevent gaps in services.

• Utilizing case managers to reach across boundaries established by state and local agencies to broker services needed by clients emerging from incarceration.

• Coordinating release of offenders to correspond with openings in treatment programs in the community.

• Insuring that released offenders enter treatment at a level commensurate to that attained in prison, rather than starting over.

• Conditioning release from jail or prison so that the offender is required to be involved in drug treatment.

Last Updated 11-7-02