Counselor Knows Best? Clinician Assessments of In-Prison Substance Abuse Treatment Participants

• NCJ Number: 253412
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 44 Issue: 11 Dated: 2017 Pages: 1462-1476
• Author(s): Jennifer N. Stanley; Christopher E. Kelly; Wayne N. Welsh
• Date Published: 2017
• Length: 15 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2002-RT-BX-1002
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Program/Project Description
• Award: Evaluation of Drug Treatement at the State Correctional Institution at Chester: A Partnership Between the PA Doc,

Annotation

The current study partially replicated Blasko and Hhiller's analyses of substance abuse treatment counselors' ratings of the treatment status of their criminal justice clients and their association with reincarceration and then explored its own factor structure to compare the findings from a different sample using the same instrument, the Criminal Justice Counselor Rating of Client (CJ CRC).

Abstract

Research has examined responses to substance abuse treatment among criminal justice populations primarily through client self-assessments, and comparatively fewer studies have focused on clinician ratings of client progress. Blasko and Hiller found no link between counselor ratings of their clients and a client's reincarceration. The analyses of the current study found that although none of the replicated counselor measures predicted reincarceration, higher levels of one measure produced from the factor analysis, Psychological Barriers to Recovery, indicated a significantly higher probability for reincarceration. Given these conflicting findings, the researchers conclude that clinical assessments of clients may be useful for criminal justice decisionmaking. (publisher abstract modified)