Study 1
Hanlon and colleagues (1999) conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of Social Support Treatment with Drug Testing, which was designed for individuals released from prison with an admitted or documented history of drug and/or cocaine use. The individuals who participated in this study were released from the Maryland State Corrections System and were specifically from Baltimore City.
Incarcerated males and females who had a history of narcotic addiction and/or heavy cocaine use and had been placed on at least 1 year of parole were eligible for the study. Although all parolees were required to enroll in a treatment program as a condition of parole, participation in the study was voluntary and not required for parole eligibility.
Participants were randomly assigned (within race, gender, and primary drug of choice, which could be heroin or cocaine), to one of the following three groups for a 1-year observation period: 1) social support program with weekly urine monitoring (n=270); 2) weekly urine monitoring with routine parole, which included referral to a non-study drug treatment program (n=99); and 3) routine parole only, which included infrequent urine testing and assignment to a non-study drug use program (n=135). For the purposes of this CrimeSolutions review, the focus was on the comparison between the social support program with weekly urine monitoring treatment group and the routine parole control group.
Of the 504 study participants, 88 percent were African American,12 percent were white, and 78 percent were male. The average age was 31. With regard to drug use, 78 percent had been addicted to heroin, and 22 percent had a history of heavy cocaine use. Additionally, half of the sample had participated in a drug treatment program prior to their incarceration. Of the full sample, 28 percent reported they had been incarcerated as juveniles.
Data was collected from researcher-created confidential assessment surveys (which included assessment of employment, drug use, criminal activity), parole records, and urinalysis records. The statistical analysis methods were ordinary least squares regression and logistic regression. The follow-up period was 1 year after the individual was released from incarceration.