Using the “recovery” and “rehabilitation” paradigms to support desistance of substance-involved offenders: exploration of dual and multi-focus interventions

Abstract

The links between substance use and offending are well evidenced in the literature, and increasingly, substance misuse recovery is being seen as a central component of the process of rehabilitation from offending, with substance use identified as a key criminogenic risk factor. In recent years, research has demonstrated the commonalities between recovery and rehabilitation, and the possible merits of providing interventions to substance-involved offenders that address both problematic sets of behaviours. This review paper therefore provides an overview of the links between substance use and offending, and the burgeoning literature around the parallel processes of recovery and rehabilitation. This is provided as a rationale for a new treatment approach for substance-involved offenders, Breaking Free Online (BFO), which has recently been provided as part of the Gateways throughcare pathfinder in a number of prisons in North-West England. The BFO programme contains specific behaviour change techniques (BCTs) that are generic enough to be applied to change a wide range of behaviours, and so is able to support substance-involved offenders to address their substance use and offending simultaneously. This dual and multi-target intervention approach has the potential to address multiple, associated areas of need simultaneously, streamlining services and providing more holistic support for individuals, such as substance-involved offenders, who may have multiple and complex needs. Recommendations are provided to other intervention developers who may wish to further contribute to widening access to such dual-focus programmes for substance-involved offenders, based on the experiences developing and evidencing the BFO programme.

The road to develop prisoners’ skills and attitudes: an analytical study of contemporary prison-based rehabilitation programme in Sri Lanka

“…Although prior studies (Elison et al, 2016;van Ginneken et al, 2018) have described the nature of the faltering processes of prison reform, the recent (that is, post-2004) literature does not provide a comprehensive description and analysis of the factors that have undermined the process of prison reform and rehabilitation process. Incarceration carries with it the responsibility of offender rehabilitation.…”

Missed Opportunities: Perspectives of Incarcerated Israeli Women and Men on Their Unsuccessful Desistance

“…The dominance of the substance-use problems in the narratives of unsuccessful desistance reflects our current aim to explore substance-involved inmates and our recruitment of participants, in line with the well-documented identification of substance use as a key criminogenic risk factor for recidivism especially among women (Hannah-Moffat, 2015). This, in turn, suggests the potential merits of offering substance-involved incarcerated people interventions that address both problematic sets of behaviors (Elison et al, 2016).…”

Protocol for a randomized controlled trial of the Breaking Free Online Health and Justice program for substance misuse in prison settings

“…As only the first 5 items of the WHOQoL-BREF are being used, reliability and validity analyses will be conducted on data generated from these 5 items. Internal reliability which will be examined using Cronbach’s alpha, and concurrent validity will be examined by correlating scores on the 5 WHOQoL-BREF items against scores on the other measures included in the study measuring constructs related to quality of life.Biopsychosocial functioning: This will be measured using the Recovery Progression Measure (RPM; Elison et al 2016a, b; Elison et al 2017a, b, c, d), which is a 36-item measure comprising 6 ‘impact slider’, 11-point Likert scale items each measuring level of severity of impairment in the following 6 domains of functioning; difficult situations, negative thoughts, emotions, unhelpful behaviors, physical sensations, lifestyle. In addition, the RPM contains 30 dichotomous ‘yes/no’ response items measuring presence or absence of specific biopsychosocial issues within each of the 6 domains.…”

“…Biopsychosocial functioning: This will be measured using the Recovery Progression Measure (RPM; Elison et al 2016a, b; Elison et al 2017a, b, c, d), which is a 36-item measure comprising 6 ‘impact slider’, 11-point Likert scale items each measuring level of severity of impairment in the following 6 domains of functioning; difficult situations, negative thoughts, emotions, unhelpful behaviors, physical sensations, lifestyle. In addition, the RPM contains 30 dichotomous ‘yes/no’ response items measuring presence or absence of specific biopsychosocial issues within each of the 6 domains.…”

“…Given the significant associations between substance use and offending, it seems intuitive that if any intervention for substance-involved offenders is to be effective, it needs to address not only the substance use but also the offending behavior that may be associated with it Elison et al (2017a). In order to meet this requirement, Breaking Free Online (BFO) Health and Justice, a computer-assisted therapy (CAT) program designed to address both substance misuse and offending behaviors simultaneously, has been developed.…”