Findings from a Process Evaluation of a Statewide Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program for Youthful Offenders

Despite the critical importance of process evaluations to enhancing the efficiency and long-term effectiveness of chemical dependency treatment programs, attention to process-related dimensions of treatment programming has been largely neglected. Using data collected on youthful offenders with chemical dependency treatment needs in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), this paper provides a systematic and empirical process evaluation of factors associated with successful program progress in TYC’s Chemical Dependency Treatment Program (CDTP). Analyses focus on appropriate program placement and whether and to what extent risk, dynamic/criminogenic need, behavioral, and treatment amenability factors are related to several key measures of program progress, including completion/expulsion, days to completion/expulsion, and performance, as well as to variation among these outcomes across treatment sites. Policy and research implications of these analyses and of process evaluations then are discussed.