HOW ARE SERVICES DELIVERED TO OFFENDERS?

While individual jurisdictions grapple with this issue, very little is known about organizational trends. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), as part of their new Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS) initiative, is sponsoring a survey of TASC professionals this summer. NIDA has organized ten research centers and one national coordinating center across the country to conduct a series of studies devoted to understanding how best to provide services within the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

This is the first national survey that will provide a detailed look at the nature of treatment provided to offenders involved in all parts of the juvenile and criminal justice systems, and the organizations involved in delivering substance abuse treatment and other services in prison and in community corrections. The survey is being conducted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and includes key administrators, operations managers, and staff. This survey represents a major effort to understand treatment and offender programming services for offenders provided in the community setting. It will provide a framework for describing and understanding how different jurisdictions deliver drug treatment and health services to offenders/youth in the juvenile justice system.

National TASC has played an instrumental role in developing and designing the survey instrument. We have been working with Dr. Faye S. Taxman of the University of Maryland who is responsible for the CJ-DATS Coordinating Center. Dr. Taxman and her team will be working with National TASC to use survey findings to assist correctional agencies in making treatment practices more effective and efficient.