Author Description

The Native Inmate Substance Abuse Pre-Treatment Project, a 1-year research and development demonstration project, was pilot tested at Mountain Federal Penitentiary and William Head Federal Penitentiary in British Columbia (Canada). Ten inmates volunteered to participate in the Mountain program, and 14 inmates were required to attend at William Head. The program ran for 8 weeks, 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, and used Native culture and spirituality as components of the intervention process. Inmates and institution staff viewed the program as beneficial, resulting in learning and attitude changes for most of the participants. However, the nature of learning was quite different at the two programs. The program at William Head was more intellectual and educationally oriented, resulting in new knowledge about substance addiction and how to change one's lifestyle. The program at Mountain Institution was more emotional and therapeutically oriented, resulting in greater awareness of personal issues and change in interpersonal relationships. Program differences are attributed to differences between the inmates and the style of each of the counselors. Recommendations include developing a family-system continuum-of-care model in conjunction with the pretreatment program. The appendix includes a monitoring and evaluation model manual and sample data-collection forms and questionnaires. (KS)