About PCRC
Dr. Michael L. Prendergast, PCRC’s principal investigator, is Director of the Criminal Justice Research Group at the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP). Dr. Prendergast has extensive experience in substance abuse treatment research among correctional populations, including treatment for women offenders. He has been Principal Investigator of evaluations of treatment programs in correctional settings in California: the Forever Free Treatment Program at the California Institution for Women; the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility at Corcoran; and 15 treatment programs at other California prisons. He has also been Principal Investigator of several NIDA-funded studies: a five-year follow-up study of participants in a prison-based therapeutic community, an evaluation of the use of vouchers within a drug court treatment program, and an evaluation of the relative effectiveness of mixed-gender and women-only community treatment. He was Co-Principal Investigator of the statewide evaluation of the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act (Proposition 36). He has also conducted three meta-analyses on the effectiveness of drug abuse treatment. His research interests include treatment effectiveness, research syntheses, treatment policy, issues in coerced treatment, and treatment for drug-abusing offenders. His work has been published in American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, American Journal of Public Health, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Journal of Drug Issues, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, and Prison Journal.
CJ-DATS includes nine Research Centers—at Lifespan Hospitals/Brown University (Peter Friedmann, PI), University of Connecticut (Linda Frisman, PI), University of Delaware (James Inciardi, PI), University of Kentucky (Carl Leukefeld, PI), University of California at Los Angeles (Michael Prendergast, PI), National Development and Research Institutes (Harry Wexler, PI), Texas Christian University (Dwayne Simpson, PI), NDRI Adolescent Research Center (Nancy Jainchill, PI), and University of Miami (Howard Liddle, PI)—as well as a Coordinating Center at University of Maryland (Faye Taxman, PI) and a NIDA Collaborating Scientist (Bennett Fletcher).
PCRC Staff include:
Michael L. Prendergast, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
David Farabee, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator
Christine Grella, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator
Elizabeth Hall, Ph.D., Project Director
William Burdon, Ph.D., Study Director
Stacy Calhoun, M.A., Research Assistant
Jerry Cartier, M.A., Research Associate