Dr. Harry Wexler walks through the past and current research developments on the efficacy of Therapeutic Communities in prisons. A timeline from the 1950s to present details how the Therapeutic Community model developed in prisons, and what research efforts supported that development. Wexler discusses a breadth of topics including: the evidence that prison treatment alone is insufficient for long-term change, and the importance of aftercare; the benefits and potential problems of manual-based treatment; the need for incentives; the importance of bridging TC members and facilitators with their outside communities; and the promising new research of TCs in maximum-security prisons and the potential of reducing violence among their prisoners.
Expert
Harry Wexler, PhD
Dr. Harry Wexler is currently a Senior Principal Investigator at the Center for Integration of Research and Practice at the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) in New York City. His career spans three decades at the forefront of research on treatment of offenders under criminal justice supervision, and particularly incarcerated substance abusers receiving community treatment. His evaluation of the Amity Program at Donovan Prison in California provided the credible evidence for state legislators to fund the largest single initiative…
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