Effectiveness of prison-based therapeutic community in Japan: Using propensity scores adjusting confounding factors

Abstract

Prison-based therapeutic community for drug abusers in U.S. shows some evidence to be effective in reducing recidivism. This study evaluates a prison-based therapeutic community for variety of inmates in Japan to determine if Japanese prison-based therapeutic community also achieve to this effect. The data included 2665 male inmates released from Prison A between February 2009 and March 2015. The participants were divided into cohorts; TC participant cohort of 148 and all other 2517. Having conducted statistical compensation by propensity score matching method and adjusting for confounding factors, the effectiveness of the TC was reviewed based on whether or not subjects returned to prison. The results showed that the TC participants had a significantly lower rate of repeat incarceration (p＝0.020) and longer survival-day-count (p＝0.009). This study shows therapeutic communities could be implemented in Japanese prisons and effective to reduce recidivism for variety of inmates.