Studies
UCLA Pacific Coast Research Center is currently participating in the following studies:
- Improving Best Practices in Assessment and Services Planning: Organizational Process Improvement Intervention (OPII)
This study involves implementation research on the introduction, implementation, and sustainment of process improvements in assessment and treatment planning within correctional agencies and community treatment programs for substance-abusing offenders. In practice, this study will improve the process of offender assessment, case planning, treatment referral, and services delivery in a variety of correctional settings including prison re-entry, juvenile detention, and adult probation and parole. The study seeks to produce guidelines that will utilize comprehensive research and assessment tools to construct a usable treatment plan for inmates with histories of substance-abuse. The Management Team for the Assessment Study includes: Michael Prendergast, Ph.D., UCLA PCRC; Michael Shaefer, Ph.D., Arizona State University. - HIV Services and Treatment Implementation in Corections (HIV-STIC)
Inmates and other offenders are at a comparatively higher risk for incident HIV infection and their prevalence of HIV is substantially higher than in the general population. Reducing or preventing infections in core risk groups such as these can greatly reduce transmission and incident infections in the community. This study involves randomized implementation research to learn how to more effectively implement and sustain improvements in the HIV services continuum for offenders. The HIV services continuum includes prevention, testing, and access to antiretroviral therapies. The project is designed to assess the relative effectiveness of a local change-team approach for improving HIV service outcomes in criminal justice settings. It uses a design that randomizes at the facility or site-level and delivers an evidence-based implementation strategy. - Medically-Assisted Treatment Implementation in Community Correctional Environments (MATICCE)
Previous research has shown that opioid- and alcohol-dependent individuals are extensively involved in the criminal justice system, resulting in high public safety costs. In addition, when they receive traditional medication-free treatment, opioid addicts are more likely than other substance abusers to relapse and return to drug use and crime. Researchers have also identified several common barriers to the use of medication-assisted treatment with criminal justice populations. One such barrier is a lack of knowledge about the effectiveness of addiction pharmacotherapy. Another barrier is the lack of both formal and informal linkages to community-based providers of addiction pharmacotherapy treatment.
The purpose of this National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded study is to facilitate linkages between CJ supervision agencies (e.g., prison, jail, probation, or parole) and community-based providers of addiction pharmacotherapy treatment. The primary focus would be to develop and test an implementation strategy to enhance collaboration between agencies involved in the referral process of opioid- and alcohol-dependent adults under community supervision to insure receipt of the most appropriate and effective treatment services, including addiction pharmacotherapy. Closer collaboration among these agencies is likely to achieve significant benefits in terms of reducing adverse public safety and public health impacts, as well as benefits to the clients themselves. The study will be conducted as a multi-site intervention approach with measures at both the organizational and the client (individual under criminal justice supervision) level.
By appropriately treating opioid addiction, agencies could reduce the numbers of opiate addicts going through repeated arrest-incarceration-release cycles. Medication-assisted treatment could also slow down the cycles by lengthening the time between relapse. Both situations would likely result in decreased crime and, therefore, lower public safety costs. In addition, formal linkages with medication-assisted treatment agencies could simplify supervision and lower parole/probation supervision costs. Public health benefits include reduced incidence of blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B and C and reduced emergency room visits for overdose and injection-related infections.
Past studies include:
- Transitional Case Management (TCM) (Lead Center: UCLA Pacific Coast Research Center). In an effort to increase participation in community aftercare treatment for substance-abusing offenders who have paroled from prison, this intervention proposes to test a transitional case management model that consists of completion by the inmate of a self-assessment of strengths that informs the development of the continuing care plan, a case conference call shortly before release, and strengths-based case management for three months to promote retention in treatment and to support the participants’ access to designated services in the community. The design includes random assignment of consenting inmates to one of two groups: (1) Standard Referral group, which uses the standard transition/re-entry procedure used by the facility, including a referral to community treatment, and (2) Transitional Case Management group. Outcomes will include measures of aftercare participation, drug use, psychosocial functioning, and recidivism, measured 6 months following the end of the intervention. The study will also assess the impact of the intervention on organizational and system factors and the cost effectiveness of the intervention.
- Inmate Pre-Release Assessment (IPASS) (Lead Center: UCLA Pacific Coast Research Center). This short-term study will develop and test the IPASS as a method of (1) prioritizing aftercare treatment need among graduates of prison-based substance abuse treatment programs, and (2) specifying an appropriate level of care in the community (residential, outpatient, or self-help groups). To this end, the IPASS will be administered to inmates 90 days prior to release, along with a trailer form on which the prerelease counselors will indicate how important it is for that inmate to receive aftercare and what level of care is indicated. Although the transitional counselor will oversee the administration of the IPASS, aftercare placements will be based on his or her existing practices. Using a “passive matching” procedure comparing IPASS-concordant and IPASS-discordant referrals, parolees will be compared with regard to aftercare show up rates and retention. In addition, 12-month recidivism data will also be extracted from official records.