Availability and Capacity of Substance Abuse Programs in Correctional Settings: A Classification and Regression Tree Analysis

Objective to be addressed—The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural and organizational factors that contribute to the availability and increased capacity for substance abuse treatment programs in correctional settings. We used Classification and Regression Tree statistical procedures to identify how multi-level data can explain the variability in availability and capacity of substance abuse treatment programs in jails and probation/parole offices. Methods—The data for this study combined the National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices survey (NCJTP) and the 2000 Census. The NCJTP survey was a nationally representative sample of correctional administrators for jails and probation/parole agencies. The sample size included 295 substance abuse treatment programs that were classified according to the intensity of their services: high, medium, and low. The independent variables included jurisdictional-level structural variables, attributes of the correctional administrators, and program and service delivery characteristics of the correctional agency. Results—The two most important variables in predicting the availability of all three types of services were stronger working relationships with other organizations and the adoption of a standardized substance abuse screening tool by correctional agencies. For high and medium intensive programs, the capacity increased when an organizational learning strategy was used by administrators and the organization used a substance abuse screening tool. Implications on advancing treatment practices in correctional settings are discussed, including further work to test theories on how to better understand access to intensive treatment services. This study presents the first phase of understanding capacity-related issues regarding treatment programs offered in correctional settings