Reincarceration of drug-dependent prisoners released into a therapeutic community, according to pretreatment variables

The main aim of this paper is to identify the criminal and penitentiary pretreatment variables associated with re-entry into prison in a population of drug-dependent inmates who had been released from different prisons in Castilla and Leon (Spain) to finish their prison sentence in a Therapeutic Community. The study population was 120 male inmates. The documentary sources consulted for collecting information were the prison record, the classification and treatment protocol and the social record. These official records were consulted in the Burgos Penitentiary, responsible for custody of the documents. Applying a descriptive statistical analysis with contingency tables, the pre-treatment variables that showed the strongest association with re-entry into prison were family prison history, total sentence exceeding five years, imprisonments prior to the sentence in question, change to a higher security level, revocation of parole, breach of the terms of a sentence, completion of sentence in prison and, especially, age at first entry into prison between 16 and 21 years. It was confirmed through logistic regression analysis that the variable age at which participants entered prison for the first time is critical, given the impact that prison can have at an early age. These results provide a profile of the drug-dependent inmate at greatest risk of making poor use of measures alternative to prison.