May 10, 2002 |
Drug and Alcohol Treatment in Juvenile Correctional Facilities |
In Brief |
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This report examines substance abuse treatment in juvenile correctional facilities. The Uniform Facility Data Set 1997 Survey of Correctional Facilities1 collected information about the availability of drug and alcohol treatment and supplemental on-site services in the nation's correctional facilities. Treatment was defined to include services such as detoxification, group or individual counseling, rehabilitation, and methadone or other pharmaceutical treatment. Supplemental services included education and awareness programs, needs assessment, drug testing, and self-help programs. The survey included juvenile facilities identified by the Department of Justice as facilities under the purview of a correctional or juvenile justice agency or otherwise associated with a State or local corrections system. The response rate of juvenile facilities was 94 percent. Information from 148 juvenile facilities already surveyed in the 1996 Uniform Facility Data Set was added for a total sample size of 3,127 juvenile correctional facilities. |
Services Offered Among all juvenile correctional facilities in the nation 37 percent provided on-site substance abuse treatment to their residents (Figure 1). Approximately 20,000 individuals younger than 18 years of age were receiving substance abuse treatment within these facilities (data not shown). Of the 1,143 facilities offering treatment, more than 90 percent provided individual counseling or group
Among the facilities responding to questions about drug testing, 59 percent responded that they had conducted some type of drug testing in the year prior to the survey. A quarter of responding facilities tested on a random basis and 52 percent tested on the basis of reasonable suspicion. Some facilities conducted both types of testing. Of responding facilities, 17 percent tested residents on admission, and 8 percent tested residents at release. Drug testing was more common in facilities providing substance abuse treatment; 75 percent of those facilities had conducted drug testing in the previous year, and 38 percent tested on a random basis. State Differences At the State level, there were differences in services provided by correctional facilities. For example, the State of Washington had the highest proportion of facilities providing on-site substance abuse treatment, with 31 of the 49 juvenile correctional facilities (63 percent) providing treatment. With respect to supplemental services, roughly 80 to 90 percent of the juvenile facilities in Washington provided drug testing, needs assessment, and education. Juvenile correctional facilities in Mississippi were the least likely to provide on-site substance abuse treatment, with two of the 15 juvenile correctional facilities (13 percent) providing treatment. While 36 percent of juvenile facilities in Mississippi provided some type of drug testing, 60 percent provided needs assessment services and 82 percent provided education programs.2 |
Facility Size In terms of facility population, juvenile correctional facilities were generally smaller than jails and prisons with adult populations. Of all juvenile facilities responding to questions about facility size, 66 percent had fewer than 25 residents, 16 percent had 25 to 49 residents, 11 percent had 50 to 99 residents, and 8 percent had 100 or more residents (Figure 2). Among the largest facilities, those with 250 or more residents, 58 percent provided treatment, while 30 percent of the smallest facilities, facilities with fewer than 25 residents, provided treatment (Figure 3). Still, because the majority of all juvenile correctional facilities are small, over half (54 percent) of facilities that provided treatment were small facilities with fewer than 25 residents.3
Public and Private Ownership Of the facilities providing information about ownership, over half (56 percent) of juvenile correctional facilities with on-site treatment were privately owned, primarily by nonprofit organizations. The smallest facilities, which were more common, were more likely to be private; 68 percent of the smallest facilities were owned by private organizations. At the other extreme, 93 percent of the largest facilities were public.4 Figure Notes * Ad hoc analysis; number of respondents varies according to item response rates and ranges from 2,911 to 3,113. **Ad hoc analysis; sample size is 3,096, based on response rate to questionnaire item about facility size.
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The DASIS Report is published periodically by the Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission from SAMHSA. Additional copies of this report may be downloaded from http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/facts.cfm. Citation of the source is appreciated. Other reports from the Office of Applied Studies are also available on-line at the OAS home page: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov. |
This page was last updated on December 31, 2008. |
SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.
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