The Pacific Coast Research Center (PCRC) is part of a nationwide network of research centers involved in NIDA’s Criminal Justice – Drug Abuse Treatment Research Studies (CJ-DATS). The goal of this important research initiative is to establish a research infrastructure to test the effectiveness of integrated treatment models within criminal justice settings. A key feature of the project will be to promote collaboration among researchers, clinicians, and correctional staff/administrators. The CJ-DATS research system is designed to evaluate interventions in multi-site studies that address systems-level issues related to integrating public health and public safety approaches for drug-using offenders.

The Pacific Coast Research Center has research partners in three states: California, Oregon, and Washington. They are: the California Department of Corrections, Office of Substance Abuse Programs, which currently offers prison-based therapeutic community treatment to nearly 8,000 inmates; the Oregon Department of Corrections, which provides treatment to approximately 500 prisoners; and the Washington Department of Corrections which treats approximately 1,000 prisoners. All three states have community-based treatment available to parolees as well.

The Pacific Coast Research Center is situated in UCLA’s Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP) in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. ISAP brings to the CJ-DATS initiative three decades of experience in research on the relationship between drugs and crime and on program- and system-level interventions for drug-using offenders.