i A Booster Intervention in a Connecticut Correctional Institution: A Pilot Study

The issue of offender reentry remains one of the most important and critical social problems that America is facing. There is continued interest and support on a state and national level to promote successful reentry and to improve public safety. It is important to implement evidence-based treatment programs that will achieve this goal. Research also shows that treatment gains from interventions diminish over time when the benefit of the program fades. This purpose of this dissertation is to explore if a booster treatment intervention would be effective to reinforce treatment gains for incarcerated persons with mental illness who are preparing to be released back to the community. To achieve the purpose of this dissertation, three chapters are presented as articles. The first article, a systematic review, did show that treatment interventions for offenders with mental illness were cautiously effective in reducing mental health symptoms and in reducing recidivism. The results of this systematic review of meta-analyses revealed that a booster intervention in the correctional institution had never been implemented or examined with this population. Based on this literature review, the many challenges and barriers to conducting research in the correctional setting were identified tha