Employment intervention for offenders

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Crime and unemployment represent the most significant cost of drug abuse. Offenders who are employed are less likely to relapse and commit fewer crimes. Despite these findings, employment programs are only viewed as ancillary treatment for drug abuse and specific employment interventions targeting offenders are limited, and those that are available suffer from a number of methodological flaws. Preliminary work at our Center has shown the importance of integrating drug and employment counseling with methadone clients. This integrated counseling and employment (ICE) intervention is a manualized treatment based on interpersonal cognitive problem solving theory that has been developed under a NIDA funded behavioral therapies development grant. Integrating employment services into drug therapy sessions could be a more effective, less costly and more functional alternative than the traditional approach of making referrals for employment services. The current study proposes to implement the ICE intervention with criminal justice clients who are mandated to drug treatment. Many offenders need employment services and often are required as part of their parole to work. Parolees will be randomly assigned to receive either the integrated counseling and employment (ICE) intervention (n=100) or a drug counseling only control condition (n=100). There are two specific aims of the proposed study: The first aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of the ICE intervention among offenders over an 18 month period post-treatment entry in terms of the primary outcomes of during treatment employment, drug use, and crime including parole infractions;and the secondary outcomes of HIV risk behaviors, post-treatment employment, drug use and crime, and other areas of functioning (e.g., psychiatric, social/family functioning). The second aim is to perform a benefit-cost analysis comparing the integrated treatment with the drug counseling only control condition. Providing offenders with integrated drug and employment counseling may help reduce recidivism and improve employment prospects for this group, thus reducing the large societal cost of drug abuse.