The Inmate Prerelease Assessment for Reentry Planning

Abstract

The Inmate Prerelease Assessment (IPASS) was developed specifically as a measure of postrelease risk for prison-based treatment graduates. By taking into account historical drug use and criminal activity of inmates as well as their performance during prison-based treatment, the IPASS provides a "priority" score indicating the relative need for more (versus less) intensive treatment services on release. The present study used data from offenders paroling from prisons in a southwest (N = 127) and midwest (N = 75) state to examine the psychometric properties of the IPASS subscales. With regard to construct validity, psychometric properties ranged from good to excellent. The IPASS scales also showed strong internal consistency, with coefficient alphas greater than .80 for the Texas Christian University Drug Screen, Client Evaluation of Treatment, and Counselor Evaluation of Client scales. Further research will explore alternatives on how the Client and Counselor scales are optimally incorporated into the IPASS priority score and will examine the score in relation to aftercare participation and postrelease outcomes.

Inmate Prerelease Assessment (IPASS) Aftercare Placement Recommendation as a Predictor of Rural Inmate's 12-step Attendance and Treatment Entry Postrelease

“…One way of making that determination is with the aid of an assessment tool, which can help predict whether offenders need treatment and at what level of care once back in the community. Until recently, prison treatment staff only had two instruments (i.e., Level of Services Inventory and American Society of Addiction Medicine Patient Placement criteria) to use in this regard, neither of which was developed for use with offenders (Farabee, Knight, Garner, & Calhoun, 2007). A third instrument, the Offender Profile Index (OPI) was specifically designed for use with criminal justice populations in order to provide staff with recommendations about treatment placement (McBride & Inciardi, 1993).…”

“…In 2000, a group of researchers and practitioners as part of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) supported CJ-DATS research cooperative focused on developing an assessment instrument to assist prison treatment staff with making recommendations for post-release treatment services for those inmates who are re-entering the community (Farabee et al, 2007). The Inmate Pre-release Assessment (IPASS) takes into consideration the inmates criminal history, drug use history, and their performance in treatment as indicators of their identified need for community treatment following release.…”

“…The IPASS includes four scales: the General Background Risk Index (GBRI), the Texas Christian University Drug Screen (TCUDS), the Client Evaluation of Treatment (CET), and the Counselor Evaluation of Client (CEC). While the GBRI and TCUDS scales look at more historical information (i.e., criminal history and drug use severity), the CET and CEC scales are more interested in how well clients perform in treatment and their motivation levels (Farabee et al, 2007). …”

“…During initial evaluations of the scales, the IPASS scales were found to have good to excellent psychometric properties and to have strong internal consistency (Farabee et al, 2007). Specifically, a confirmatory factor analysis investigated the construct validity of the TCUDS, CET, and CEC sections of the IPASS and found that the fit indices support the hypothesized factor structure of the IPASS.…”

Examining Concurrent Validity and Predictive Utility for the Addiction Severity Index and Texas Christian University (TCU) Short Forms

“…Of particular importance is establishing stronger evidence on the value of such assessments in relation to readiness and conditions for community re-entry. For instance, the Inmate Prerelease Assessment for Re-Entry Planning (IPASS; Farabee, Knight, Garner, & Calhoun, 2007) recommends the use of background drug use and criminal involvement as well as treatment engagement and performance indicators as a basis for determining post-treatment release strategies. Several of the TCU forms specifically address these issues (e.g., RSKForm, CRHSForm, CTSForm, PSYForm, SOCForm, MOTForm, ENGForm), but further evaluation of their applications for post-release planning is needed.…”