Final thoughts on IMPACT: a federally funded, jail-based, drug-user-treatment program

A federal demonstration project in the Cook County Jail, called IMPACT (Intensive Multi-phased Program of Assessment and Comprehensive Treatment), provided residential drug-user treatment to more than 3,000 inmates during its 5 years of operation between January 1991 and October 1995. In that time, much was learned about initiating and conducting a complex, intensive, longer-term drug-user-treatment program in a jail setting. This article describes IMPACT and summarizes the results of a process and an outcome evaluation of the program and a series of focus groups. Based on these studies, we recommend ways to improve the design and implementation of drug-user treatment programs in jails.