CENTER ON EVIDENCE BASED INTERVENTIONS FOR CRIME AND ADDICTION
Directors: Steven Belenko, Ph.D. & Harry K. Wexler, Ph.D.

2006 CEICA Conference: Final Report available here for download.
Conference materials available here.

The Center on Evidence Based Interventions for Crime and Addiction at TRI (CEICA) is dedicated to using the best scientific and clinical evidence to improve treatment outcomes for

substance abusing offenders. CEICA is co-directed by Steven Belenko, Ph.D., senior scientist at TRI, and Harry K. Wexler, Ph.D., senior principal investigator at NDRI. The connections between illegal drug abuse and crime have been well documented.

Nearly two-thirds of the annual $168 billion in social costs of illegal drug use are related to drug-related crime (Belenko et al., 2005). Eighty percent of offenders have been found to have drug or alcohol related problems; 95% of state prison inmates relapse to drug use and two-thirds are rearrested within three years of release from incarceration.

In the face of these and other statistics, there is mounting interest in mobilizing the research community to help practitioners translate, apply and sustain effective strategies in their routine practice. Professional organizations and federal agencies have been actively promoting identification and implementation of EBP in mental health, education and substance abuse. This interest has spurred several initiatives to synthesize scientific knowledge, conduct literature reviews, disseminate scientific findings to the field, or train practitioners in evidence-based interventions. Examples include SAMHSA’s National Registry of Effective Programs and Practices (NREPP), the National GAINS Center, the Cochrane Reviews, and the Campbell Collaboration. These efforts have focused primarily on reviewing literature, establishing criteria for evidence-based treatments and identifying and rating programs.

In contrast, CEICA focuses on feasibility, sustainability, dissemination and policy, in addition to identifying effective criminal justice interventions. The goal of CEICA is to place equal emphasis on research and practice, explicitly focus on implementation and sustainability of EBP in criminal justice treatment, and be sufficiently balanced in representing the views of researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and clients. A primary goal is to foster meaningful interdisciplinary conversations that advance dissemination and utilization of EBP.

With start-up funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Drs. Belenko and Wexler co-founded CEICA in the summer of 2005. Year one of the Center, a planning and organizing year, has been devoted to systematic reviews of scientific evidence, establishing linkages with national practitioner organizations and federal partners, and development of training and dissemination strategies for the most relevant interventions. Identifying knowledge gaps in the treatment of substance-abusing offenders, and encouraging increased research funding to address these gaps, is an important long-term goal of the Center.

In December 2006, coinciding with the end of its first year of operation, CEICA will host a by-invitation conference bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy makers in dialogue around the science as well as the policy and practice of implementing and sustaining EBP for criminal justice populations. This conference is being funded by NIDA, with additional support from NIAAA and CSAT.

Organization and Leadership CEICA includes a small core group of external senior advisors and multiple research organizations. Current members of the Advisory Board include Dr. Roger Peters, Dr. Gerald Melnick, Dr. Faye Taxman, Dr. John Norcross, Laurie Robinson and Mr. Terry Wilkins. TRI advisors include Chief Executive Officer A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D. and Director of the Center for Performance-based Policy, Mady Chalk. CEICA’s professional organization partners during the planning phase are the Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities (TASC), and the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA),. Associated federal agencies are the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, and the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice, all involved in funding treatment research and dissemination of EBP. At the State level, Wexler and Belenko plan to involve such organizations as the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors, the State Correctional Administrators’ Association, and the National Center for State Courts.