A comparison of voucher exchanges between criminal justice involved and noninvolved participants enrolled in voucher-based contingency management drug abuse treatment programs.

This report compares requests for goods or services made by participants in two clinical trials of contingency management for the treatment of substance abuse. One trial was for participants involved with the criminal justice system and one was for participants who were not involved with the criminal justice system. In both trials, participants earned vouchers that could be exchanged for goods or services. Results indicated that the criminal justice group used the majority of their vouchers for paying fees or fines related to the criminal justice system while the other group used only a small portion of their vouchers for paying costs related to the criminal justice system. However, when the costs for the criminal justice system are removed, the proportion of vouchers exchanged for various goods and services are similar between the two groups. The results suggest that for those substance abusers involved in the criminal justice system, assistance in paying fines and fees related to their criminal justice system involvement may be a potentially powerful source of reinforcement that could be used in creative treatment strategies.