Practice Profile: Gender-Specific Programming for Incarcerated Females

Evidence Rating for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency | Multiple crime/offense types

Date: This profile was posted on September 12, 2016

The practice involves in-prison substance abuse and other types of treatment programs for incarcerated women with the goal of reducing recidivism. The practice is rated Promising. Women who participated in the treatment were significantly less likely to recidivate after release than women who did not participate in the treatment.

Practice Goals/Target Population

Gender-Specific Programming for Incarcerated Females entails in-prison substance abuse and other types of treatment programs that are specifically designed for incarcerated women. The goals of the programs are to reduce the risk of recidivism.

Practice Theory

Gender-specific treatment programs were created as a result of challenges to the assumption that mainstream, gender-neutral correctional programs were appropriate for women. Instead, advocates for women-centered perspectives argued that because women’s pathways to crime are different from men’s, correctional interventions for women should take a different approach from correctional interventions for men. Gender-specific interventions are partly founded on relational-cultural theory (Miller 1986), feminist paradigms, and strengths-based approaches (Van Wormer 2001).

Gender-specific programming can be informed by the risk-reduction model, which is based on the idea that identifying and addressing dynamic or malleable risk factors for criminal behavior will reduce recidivism (Andrews and Bonta 1998). For instance, by addressing substance abuse among women in prison, the practice is theorized to reduce reoffending and re-incarceration after release.

Practice Components

Substance abuse treatment under the risk-reduction model is typically provided either through a therapeutic community or cognitive—behavioral approach. Therapeutic communities typically employ a holistic approach toward modifying the socialization and underlying values of those convicted of an offense (De Leon 1986; Messina et al. 2006). Cognitive–behavioral interventions seek to change the these individuals’ thinking patterns.

Various programs are aimed at improving women’s functioning during and after incarceration. The programs can target women’s psychological and physical well-being and focus on issues such as coping with physical or sexual abuse, parenting, and HIV risk. Many of the programs try to help the women heal emotionally from past experiences of victimization; to reduce symptoms or incidence of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and anger; and to boost self-esteem (Bedard et al. 2003; Bonta et al. 1995; Schram and Morash 2002; Valentine and Smith 2001).

Other programs target parenting skills. Such programs train women in prison on understanding and meeting the developmental needs of their children, avoiding the use of corporal punishment and using other disciplinary methods, and establishing parenting roles.

Finally, other programs aim to improve women’s physical health by increasing HIV awareness and prevention efforts and helping HIV-positive inmates by addressing feelings of isolation, stigma, shame, and poor self-image (Chung and Magraw 1992; Pomeroy et al. 1999).

Meta-Analysis Snapshot
	Literature Coverage Dates	Number of Studies	Number of Study Participants
Meta Analysis 1	1994-2013	6	1588
Meta Analysis 2	2000-2013	37	21795

Meta Analysis 1

Tripodi and colleagues (2011) conducted a systematic review to examine the effectiveness of substance abuse interventions for incarcerated women. The authors reexamined the studies included in the meta-analysis conducted on interventions for females conducted by Dowden and Andrews (1999) and performed a comprehensive search of the literature to locate studies, including unpublished dissertations, which had been conducted in the United States between 1988 and 2008. To be included, studies had to have evaluated the effectiveness of correctional-based interventions for women inmates in jails or prisons and used experimental, quasi-experimental, or one-group pretest–posttest research designs that provided sufficient information to calculate effect sizes. The researchers excluded studies with attrition rates of more than 30 percent that did not include study dropouts in the analyses.

A total of six studies were identified and fit the criteria for inclusion in the risk-reduction model group of studies. The final sample comprised 1,588 individuals. The treatment group participated in substance-abuse prevention programs that used a therapeutic community approach, with the exception of one program that used a cognitive–behavioral approach.

The outcome of interest was recidivism, which was measured in a variety of ways across the studies, including convictions since release, incarceration since release, return to custody, arrests, criminal activity, drug-related crime, and sex crime. A fixed-effects model and random-effects model were calculated.

Meta Analysis 2

Gobeil and colleagues (2016) conducted a meta-analysis on gender-informed and gender-neutral interventions in which they examined the effectiveness of correctional interventions for incarcerated women on reducing recidivism. The authors performed a comprehensive search of published and unpublished literature between January 2000 and December 2013. To be included, studies had to be focused on correctional programs or interventions for women convicted of an offense, have a minimum of one comparison group, and a measure of recidivism after intervention completion. The researchers excluded studies reporting on populations of immigration detention and secure mental health settings. Studies had to have at least 10 participants per group and use research designs that provided sufficient information to calculate effect sizes.

A total of 37 studies providing 38 unique effect sizes were identified and fit the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The final sample comprised 8,831 incarcerated women in the treatment group and 12,964 in the control group. The treatment group participated in cognitive–behavioral and therapeutic community programs that focused on substance use, multi-targets, trauma, cognitive skills, education, life skills, peer support, case management, and parenting.

The outcome of interest was recidivism, which was measured in a variety of ways across the studies, including conviction, charge/arrest, any return to custody, and not defined. Both fixed-effects and random-effects models were calculated.

Date Created: July 17, 2024

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Practice Snapshot

Age: 18+

Gender: Female

Race/Ethnicity: White, Black, Hispanic

Targeted Population: Females

Setting (Delivery): Correctional

Practice Type: Alcohol and Drug Therapy/Treatment, Cognitive Behavioral Treatment, Gender-Specific Programming, Parent Training, Therapeutic Communities

Unit of Analysis: Persons

Practice Profile: Gender-Specific Programming for Incarcerated Females

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Practice Summary

Practice Description

Practice Goals/Target Population

Practice Theory

Practice Components

Meta-Analysis Outcomes

Meta-Analysis Methodology

Cost

Evidence-Base (Meta-Analyses Reviewed)

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