Outcome Evaluation of the Forever Free Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) Program at the California Institution for Women, 1997-2000

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.