Family Based Substance Abuse Treatment Program for Incarcerated Male Offenders with Minor Children

The Second Chance Act (Pub. L. 110-199) provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of parents who are incarcerated as well as their families. Research has shown that children may benefit from maintaining healthy relationships with their incarcerated parents. Section 113 of the Second Chance Act authorizes grants to states, units of local government, and Indian tribes to improve the provision of substance abuse treatment within prison and jails and after reentry for inmates who have minor children and also includes outreach to families and provision of treatment and other services to children and other family members of participant inmates. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) will fund eligible applicants to plan, implement, or expand such treatment programs.

The Family-Based Prisoner Substance Abuse Treatment Program enhances the capability of states and tribes to provide substance abuse treatment for incarcerated parents; prepares offenders for their reintegration into the communities from which they came by incorporating reentry planning activities into treatment programs; and assists offenders and their communities through the reentry process through the delivery of community-based treatment and other broad-based aftercare services. Projects will provide prison-based substance abuse treatment and parenting programs for incarcerated parents of minor children, as well as treatment and other services to the participating offenders minor children and family members. Programming must be targeted to inmates with minor children and include services for these inmates, their minor children, and other family members. By law, no less that 5 percent of the funds available for the Family-Based Substance Abuse Treatment Program will be used for grants to Indian Tribes.

Allegheny County Health Department, through its charitable nonprofit arm Allegheny Correctional Health Services (ACHS), will combine substance abuse treatment for the offenders with a range of services for their children and families based on the ACHS Motivational Enhancement and Relapse Prevention treatment model. Through this family-based prisoner substance abuse treatment program, ACHS will provide substance abuse treatment for the incarcerated parent and other family-based services such as parenting skills, couples counseling, and life-skills for both parents and their families. These services are designed to build positive relationships between the offender and his child(ren) and between the offender and his co-parent or other family member to reduce the negative impacts of psychological demands from their children and families that all too often trigger relapse and recidivism for the offender and further damage his ability to be a responsible parent and community citizen. The program will leverage the services routinely available for offenders through ACHS and those services available to offenders through the Second Chance Act grant services that follow offenders for up to a year after incarceration. Those services include medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment; medical assistance sign-up; education; employment and training services; life skills; parole liaison; and case management services. Data shared by ACHS, the Jail, Family Court, and Probation and Parole will allow the impact of this proposed program to be tracked for the 100 offenders with their children and families to be served over the two-year project.

CA/NCF