DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03442
title: Outcome Evaluation of the Forever Free Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) Program at the California Institution for Women, 1997-2000
title: Archival Version

description: This study was an outcome evaluation of the Forever Free
 Substance Abuse Treatment Program at the California Institution for
 Women (CIW). Data were collected from 119 women who entered Forever
 Free between October 1997 and June 1998. Comparison data were
 collected from 96 women enrolled in Life Plan for Recovery, an
 eight-week substance abuse education course at CIW, between April and
 November 1998. Program participants completed an intake questionnaire,
 approximately one month after the beginning of treatment, designed to
 collect information on background, therapeutic alliance with
 counselors, group identification with fellow participants, treatment
 motivation, and psychological status. Members of the comparison group
 completed an intake form that collected background information.
 Treatment participants completed a pre-release form before leaving the
 program, which collected information on clients' therapeutic alliance
 with their counselors, psychological status, drug-related locus of
 control, and post-release treatment plans. Women in both groups
 participated in 12-month follow-up interviews between September 1999
 and August 2000, which were used to update background information and
 collect information on subjects' relationships with their children,
 drug use since release, substance abuse treatment since release,
 vocational training since release, services needed and received,
 social support, current treatment motivation, psychological status,
 and drug-related locus of control. Reincarceration data for the entire
 sample were obtained from the Offender-Based Information System, a
database maintained by the California Department of Corrections.
description: This study was an outcome evaluation of the
 Forever Free Substance Abuse Treatment Program at the California
 Institution for Women (CIW). The program, which began in 1991, was
 developed and is currently being operated by Mental Health Systems,
 Inc., under contract with the Office of Substance Abuse Programs of
 the California Department of Corrections. Forever Free is a modified
 therapeutic community with a curriculum that emphasizes relapse
 prevention, cognitive-behavioral skill building, and women's issues.
 At the time of the study, treatment was six months in duration and
 participants attended treatment for four hours per day in addition to
 their eight-hour work assignment in a prison job or educational
 program. A new cohort of about 30 women joined the program every six
 weeks. The in-custody phase of treatment was followed by up to six
 months of community residential treatment during parole
 supervision. The objectives of this study were to: (1) contrast the
 12-month post-release outcomes of Forever Free participants with those
 of a comparison group with regard to parole performance, drug use,
 employment, and psychological functioning, (2) examine differences
 between groups with regard to their relationships with their children
 following release to parole (custody status and parenting), (3)
 examine service needs during parole for both groups, and (4) determine
 outcome predictors for the whole sample and for Forever Free
 participants (tested predictors included group status, age, ethnicity,
 primary drug problem, criminal history, psychological functioning,
 level of therapeutic alliance, treatment readiness, and locus of
control).
description: Data were collected from 119 women who entered
 Forever Free between October 1997 and June 1998. Comparison data were
 collected from 96 women enrolled in Life Plan for Recovery, an
 eight-week substance abuse education course at CIW, between April and
 November 1998. Program participants completed an intake
 questionnaire, approximately one month after the beginning of
 treatment, designed to collect information on background, therapeutic
 alliance with counselors, group identification with fellow
 participants, treatment motivation, and psychological status. Those
 clients with reading difficulties had the questionnaire instrument
 read to them. Treatment participants completed the pre-release form
 approximately five months after completing the intake form. The
 pre-release form was designed to collect end-of-treatment information
 on clients' therapeutic alliance with their counselors, psychological
 status, drug-related locus of control, and post-release treatment
 plans. Members of the comparison group completed a separate intake
 form during their incarceration. Due to limited funds, less background
 information was collected from the women in the comparison group than
 from those in the treatment group. Women in both groups participated
 in 12-month follow-up interviews between September 1999 and August
 2000. Urine samples were obtained from a randomly selected 20 percent
 of subjects interviewed in Los Angeles, but these data are not
 included as part of this collection. Subjects who were incarcerated or
 selected for urine tests received face-to-face interviews (amounting
 to 61 percent of the sample). Residents of other counties who were not
 incarcerated received telephone interviews. The follow-up interview
 was used to update background information and collect information on
 subjects' relationships with their children, drug use since release,
 substance abuse treatment since release, vocational training received
 since release, services needed and received, social support, current
 treatment motivation, psychological status, and drug-related locus of
 control. Subjects providing urine samples received $50 to complete the
 interview and all other subjects interviewed received $45.
 Reincarceration data for the entire sample were obtained from the
 Offender-Based Information System, a database maintained by the
California Department of Corrections.
description: Variables from the treatment group's intake form
 include date of interview, primary drug used, birth date, race, last
 job, 1996 household income, education, criminal history, relationship
 status, previous residence type, number of children, ages of children,
 whether the respondent had legal custody of children, where children
 were living, contact and visits with children, frequency with which
 certain parenting activities were performed before incarceration, drug
 use history, drug treatment history, answers to 30 questions about the
 respondent's counseling experience and case manager, answers to 13
 questions about interactions with other participants in Forever Free,
 answers to 43 questions relating to treatment motivation and
 psychological functioning, scales for self esteem, depression,
 anxiety, problem recognition, desire for help, treatment readiness,
 and therapist understanding and involvement, and total scores for
 therapeutic alliance with counselors, patient working capacity,
 working strategy consensus, client interaction, and confident
 collaboration. Variables from the pre-release form include whether the
 respondent planned to continue treatment after release, answers to the
 same 30 questions about the respondent's treatment experience and case
 manager that were on the intake form, answers to 16 questions about
 how the respondent felt about drug use, and answers to 19 questions
 about psychological functioning. Variables from the comparison group's
 intake form include interview date, primary drug used, birth date,
 race, 1996 household income, education, criminal history, relationship
 status, number of children under 18, drug use history, and release
 date. Variables from the follow-up interview include interview date,
 whether the respondent was incarcerated at the time of the interview,
 primary drug used, whether the interview was conducted face-to-face or
 over the phone, education and vocational training received since
 release, employment status, arrests and convictions since release,
 relationship status, residence type, where children were living,
 frequency with which certain parenting activities were performed, drug
 use history since release, substance abuse treatment since release,
 answers to 53 questions about whether certain services were needed by
 the respondent or her children since parole and whether these services
 were received, answers to 14 questions about social support available
 to the respondent, answers to 24 questions about whether certain
 services were received while at CIW and for how long, answers to 64
 questions about participants' satisfaction with the Forever Free
 program, answers to 78 questions about satisfaction with treatment
 received since release, answers to the same 43 questions on treatment
 motivation and psychological functioning as on the treatment group's
 intake form, answers to 16 questions about how the respondent felt
 about drug use, and a scale for drug-related locus of control.
 Variables from the Offender-Based Information System include status at
 end of follow-up, custody start date for intake offense, return to
 custody date for all times returned to custody during the 12-month
 follow-up period, parole date for all times paroled, penal code for
 offense that returned respondent to custody for all times returned to
 custody, number of returns to custody during the 12-month follow-up
 period, number of days incarcerated since release, and number of days
before first incarceration.
description: Response Rates: Of the 149 eligible program participants, 15 (10
 percent) declined to participate in the study and an additional 15 (10
 percent) were unavailable due to illness, court appearances, family
 visits, or other reasons. Of the 105 women eligible for the comparison
 group, eight declined to participate and one was removed from the
 sample because she subsequently entered the Forever Free program and
 became part of the treatment sample. For the follow-up interviews 180
 intake subjects (84 percent), including 101 program participants (85
 percent) and 79 members (82 percent) of the comparison group, were
 located and interviewed. Three subjects were eliminated from follow-up
 because their one-year follow-up dates were outside the study window.
 Two subjects had to be eliminated from follow-up because they received
 additional sentence time and at their follow-up dates had not been
 released from prison. Two subjects refused to participate in the
 follow-up interview, and one subject was deceased. The remaining 27
subjects (13 percent) were not located.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Scales used in this study include Texas Christian
 University scales for psychological functioning: self-esteem,
 depression, and anxiety, and for motivation for treatment: problem
 recognition, desire for help, and treatment readiness. Other scales
 include California Psychotherapeutic Alliance Scales, a drug-related
locus of control scale, and several Likert-type scales.
description: All clients entering the Forever Free program between
 October 1997 and June 1998 were invited to participate in the
 study. The comparison group was selected from women attending Life
 Plan for Recovery because of their similar backgrounds and voluntary
 participation in a low-intensity substance abuse education program.
 Those enrolled in the course between April and November 1998 were
 contacted shortly before the time of their release and asked to be
part of the study.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Outcome Evaluation of the Forever Free Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) Program at the California Institution for Women, 1997-2000
description: Inmates at the California Institution for Women who
 entered the Forever Free Substance Abuse Treatment Program between
 October 1997 and June 1998 or were enrolled in the Life Plan for
Recovery course between April and November of 1998.
description: The user guide, codebook, and data collection
 instruments are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF)
 files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems,
 Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as
 the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the
Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.