In 1990, the California Youth Authority's Parole Services Branch implemented two postparole substance abuse treatment programs for relapse-prone parolees. In an effort to reduce parole revocations for technical violations relating to substance abuse, these short-term programs offer the parolee an alternative to revocation through voluntary relapse intervention. This study is an assessment of one of these programs, the Southern California Drug Treatment Program at El Centro. A total of 154 parolees who successfully completed the 3-month program were evaluated on a number of characteristics to assess their treatment success. During the 15-month evaluation period, 83 individuals (53.9%) were unsuccessful, 58 (69.9%) of them during the first 6 months of reparole. Substance abuse ratings by parole agents indicate that 83% of the removals and 37.7% of those still on parole were current habitual substance abusers. Although these findings are not encouraging, certain elements of the program were favorable. Recommendations for program modification are included in this report.
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