AMPLIFYING INCARCERATED VOICES: Resident Perceptions of a Prison-Based Therapeutic Community Program

Program evaluations have been a staple within criminological research and policymaking for many decades and have contributed to our understanding of prison-based programs and their ability to reduce recidivism and address individual-level risks and needs. The Therapeutic Community (TC) is a community-based treatment program for individuals with substance use disorders that has been adapted for use in the prison environment. The Therapeutic Community Prison Inmate Network Study (TC-PINS; PI: Kreager) collected both quantitative and qualitative measures longitudinally within a TC unit for ten consecutive months from 2016 to 2017 to assess how residents were engaging with the program, relating to their peers, and faring post-release. Given high rates of substance use disorders among incarcerated populations and how substance use increases recidivism risk, effective prison-based treatment programming for substance use disorders is imperative. Here, we highlight the invaluable contributions of our qualitative measures, the items that center the experiences, challenges, and recommendations of our incarcerated respondents. These items have unearthed unexpected patterns, challenged our expectations surrounding treatment engagement and individual-level change, and revealed actionable policy changes. We first highlight prior research that has centered the voices of prison-and jail-based program participants, then detail what we have learned thus far from resident perceptions of this TC program, and, lastly, outline suggestions for increasing the use of qualitative data and mixed methods in future program evaluations. While there are additional hurdles when conducting mixed methods program evaluations, including the perceptions, ideas, and voices of the incarcerated individuals experiencing these programs adds a vast depth of understanding and enhances our ability to inform policymaking.