Texas County to End Military-Style Drug Rehab Program

The Harris County probation system in Humble, Texas, is ending its military boot-camp approach to drug rehabilitation, the Houston Chronicle reported Aug. 30.

Experts say the 13-year experiment has not been proven effective in helping drug offenders land a job and turn their lives around.

"Boot camp doesn't work very well," said Paul Donnelly, director of the county probation program. "All the research shows it doesn't have the impact that we wanted on recidivism and rearrests."

According to a 2003 study by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, people sent to residential facilities with drug treatment and employment training programs were less likely to have their probation revoked than those sent to boot camps.

In place of the boot camp, Harris County officials said a residential program would be established at the minimum-security prison campus. The program will provide a more therapeutic environment aimed at addressing problems like addiction and underlying criminal psychology.

"You have to work with the way a person sees the world, and their thinking and their behavior, in order to get them to do anything differently in the future," said Bonita White, director of the state's Community Justice Assistance Division, which operates 31 residential programs for probationers statewide.

Source: www.jointogether.org