For Whom Does Prison-Based Drug Treatment Work? Results from a Randomized Experiment
Submitted by Mike Ashton
- 12 June 2017
For the first time in a prison setting, a randomised trial has rigorously compared intensive residential therapeutic community treatment to outpatient counselling. Confounding expectations, the US prison for problem drug users which hosted the study gained no recidivism dividend by allocating even high-risk prisoners to intensive treatment. Results of this unique trial may warrant a rethink of official US and UK guidance.