Retention of court-referred adolescents and young adults in the therapeutic community.

Client retention for Abraxas, a therapeutic community (TC) whose clients are almost exclusively court referred, was compared with that for nine other TCs that primarily accept clients not referred by the courts. Retention was found to be dramatically higher for Abraxas than for all nine comparison TCs during the first month of treatment. After the first month of treatment, discharge rates for Abraxas were lower than those for an aggregate of seven of the TCs but were comparable to rates for two others. At the end of 10 months, more residents remained at Abraxas than at eight of the nine comparison programs. These differences between Abraxas and the nine comparison TCs are particularly notable in that Abraxas' population is primarily juvenile whereas the comparison program populations are primarily adult. Analysis of the Abraxas sample showed that client retention was significantly higher for court referrals, adults, and males, and did not significantly vary according to ethnicity. The author conclude that court pressure can strongly enhance retention in therapeutic communities, particularly during the initial stage of treatment.