Effectiveness of therapeutic Communities: a Comparison of Prison-Based and Community-Based therapeutic Communities

This study was conducted to determine whether therapeutic communities can be used as a restorative justice policy to lower recidivism rates. Particularly, it investigated the effectiveness of two Colorado Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Therapeutic Communities (RSAT TC)as treatment to reduce recidivism for male inmates with substance abuse addiction. The first, the Crossroad to Freedom House Therapeutic Community at the Arrowhead Correction Center (ACC TC)is a prison-based program. The second, Peer 1 Therapeutic Community (Peer 1), is a community-based program. The object of this study was to examine these two Colorado therapeutic communities and whether or not they should be mandated as a recidivism reduction initiative for a more cost-effective crime control strategy. This study incorporates the social learning theory and differential learning association theory as concepts for a therapeutic alternative to support the offender. It relies on secondary, quantitative data