Overcoming Obstacles to Successful Transitions

Obstacles to successful transition include the fragmented criminal justice system, the lack of attention to offender issues by community treatment providers, disjointed (or nonexistent) funding streams, and the varying lengths of sentences. The following will help overcome those obstacles:

• Fostering criminal and juvenile justice systems integration (for example, CSAT's Juvenile/Criminal Justice Treatment Networks Program)
• Educating and providing incentives for community service providers to meet offender treatment needs
• Integrating funding streams and expanding the funding pool
• Coordinating sentencing practices with treatment goals
• Fostering institution and community agency coordination that promotes continuity of treatment (2)

Case Management

Case management is the coordination of health and social services for a particular client. When provided to offenders, case management also includes coordination of community supervision. Because case managers work across many agencies to serve their clients, they are sometimes known as boundary spanners. See TIP 27, Comprehensive Case Management for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT, 1998b), for more on case management.

Models for coordinating services for transitioning offenders include institution outreach, community reach-in, and third party coordination, in which a separate entity oversees transition. Though any one is appropriate for different circumstances, the Consensus Panel recommends combined models for optimal transition planning. (2)

Ideally, a single, full-time case manager works in conjunction with a transition team of involved staff members from both systems. However, if the infrastructure and resources do not allow for a full-time case manager position, the treatment provider working with the offender or the supervision officer should take the lead in providing this function. (2)

Need for Assessments

To assist in transition planning, the Panel recommends the use of standardized, comprehensive risk and needs assessment tools appropriate to offender populations. These instruments should be "normed" for various populations, including women and racial and ethnic minorities. (1) The instruments should be in the language of the client.

Assessments for offenders should be conducted within the institution as early and often as possible, and also 3 to 6 months before the offender's release. (2)

Multiple assessments of offenders having substance use disorders are necessary and should examine

• Treatment needs
• Treatment readiness
• Treatment planning
• Treatment progress
• Treatment outcome

Risk and needs assessments are ideally conducted by a multidisciplinary team, with cooperation among all players. Areas to be assessed include skills for daily living, stress management skills, general psychosocial skills, emotional readiness for the transition, literacy, and money management abilities. Criminal justice staff can contribute critical information on risk and dangerousness. Assessment results should follow the offender through the system(s). (2)

Accountability

Violations of any aspect of the transition plan must be dealt with consistently, appropriately, and in a timely manner. (1) Innovative sanctions should be developed to address violations. These sanctions are best given in a graduated manner, with the most severe being a return to prison. (1) The methods used should be understood and agreed upon by both the criminal justice and substance use disorder treatment staffs.

There should be periodic reviews of the issues addressed in the transition plan, including legal matters, appropriate placement in a level of care, the effectiveness of sanctions, and the extent to which the offender is meeting expectations. Correctional and treatment personnel should decrease levels of supervision as the offender takes on more responsibility.

An individualized relapse prevention plan should be developed for each offender. It is often developed as a standard form, written in simple, nonclinical language, with a checklist of behavioral indicators that help predict the potential for relapse. The plan should be used by all parties: the offender, treatment agency, supervising officer, and others. (2)

Treatment needs should be reassessed when there are problems (e.g., "dirty" urines, lack of progress in treatment) and, if clinically appropriate, the offender should be moved to a higher or more intensive level of care. (1) The length of stay in the program should be determined by the treatment provider who, along with the community supervision officer, can monitor the progress of the offender.

Institutions

The term institution refers to prisons, jails, and youth detention facilities. Prisons are either Federal or State facilities that usually house offenders for 1 year or more. Prisons represent the end of the adjudication process, whereas jails contain offenders who have not come to trial as well as those with short sentences. Jails are usually run by local governments, though some States, such as Alaska, oversee a jail system. Youth detention facilities provide temporary care and restrictive custody for juvenile offenders (or juveniles alleged to be delinquent). Youth detention can take place pre- or postadjudication, and facilities are usually under local jurisdiction. Regardless of which level of government is responsible for the facility, institution programs should comply with State treatment standards to the extent possible, bringing those programs into a larger context of community-based treatment. To that end, institutional treatment should focus on preparing and motivating the offender for continued care in the community. (1)