Substance use dysfunction therapy locally is a superior various to incarceration for offenders with a substance misuse background, in accordance with a current research evaluating the effectiveness of the contract therapy sanction in Sweden.
Contract therapy refers to a legal penalty wherein the offender voluntarily consents to therapy in accordance with a selected implementation plan.
“Contract therapy is an alternative choice to incarceration. It’s primarily used when the offence is deemed to have occurred on account of substance misuse or another situation requiring therapy,” says Suvi Virtanen, a College Lecturer in Psychology on the College of Jap Finland.
A rehabilitation interval is at all times deliberate primarily based on particular person wants. Along with psychosocial therapy, it might embody opioid substitution remedy.
Along with Sweden, a sanction much like contract therapy is in use in, e.g., Norway and lots of EU international locations; nonetheless, not in Finland. America, in flip, has adopted a mannequin of specialized drug courts.
Contract therapy carries a smaller threat of recidivism
Though contract therapy has been in use in Sweden for the reason that late Nineteen Eighties, its effectiveness has not been studied till now. The current research mixed knowledge from the Swedish Jail and Probation Service’s consumer register with different nationwide registries, together with knowledge on visits to specialised well being care. The research cohort included 11,893 people who had been serving a contract therapy sanction between 1999 and 2012, they usually had been adopted up for at the very least two years.
“With the introduction of contract therapy, legal behaviour and substance-related opposed well being occasions, reminiscent of overdoses and hospitalizations because of psychiatric and somatic causes, decreased considerably in comparison with the interval earlier than contract therapy,” Virtanen says.
A big proportion of these sentenced to contract therapy had additionally served group sanctions and jail sentences. Within the within-individual analysis design, a person’s threat of recidivism and opposed well being occasions throughout contract therapy was examined in comparison with durations when the person was serving a group sanction or was on parole after a jail sentence.
“The chance of recidivism and opposed well being occasions was decrease throughout contract therapy than throughout a group sanction or probation,” Virtanen notes.
Offering therapy yields higher outcomes than punishment
Substance misuse issues and criminality usually go hand in hand. The best technique to forestall recidivism is to deal with its root causes, which frequently are, in a method or one other, linked to using substances.
“Substance use issues are more and more understood as a well being concern that ought to primarily be addressed by way of well being care. Often, jail is just not the very best place for a person who wants applicable therapy and assist for restoration,” Virtanen says.
The outcomes of the research present assist for the notion that, from the perspective of societal safety and public well being, offering therapy can result in higher outcomes than penalties that emphasise punishment.
Sooner or later, the researchers intend to check the effectiveness of contract therapy in newer knowledge.
