Twelve-month employment intervention outcomes for drug-involved offenders

Employment has been identified as an important part of substance abuse treatment and is a predictor of treatment retention, treatment completion, and decreased relapse. Although employment interventions have been designed for substance abusers, few interventions have focused specifically on drug-involved offenders.

The purpose of this study was to examine employment outcomes for drug-involved offenders who received a tailored employment intervention.

In a randomized controlled trial, baseline and follow-up data were collected from 500 drug-involved offenders who were enrolled in a drug court program. Participants were randomly assigned to drug court as usual (control group) or to the employment intervention in addition to drug court.

Intent-to-treat analyses found that the tailored intervention was associated only with more days of paid employment at follow-up (210.1 vs. 199.9 days). When focusing on those with greater employment assistance needs, a work trajectory analyses, which took into account participants' pre-baseline employment pattern (negative or positive), revealed that intervention group participants had higher rates of employment (82.1% vs. 64.1%), more days paid for employment (188.9 vs. 157.0 days), and more employment income ($8623 vs. $6888) at follow-up than control group participants.

The present study adds to the growing substance abuse and employment literature. It demonstrates the efficacy of an innovative employment intervention tailored for drug-involved offenders by showing positive changes in 12-month employment outcomes, most strongly for those who have not had recent employment success.