Measuring collaboration and integration activities in criminal justice and substance abuse treatment agencies

Individuals with substance abuse problems who are involved in the criminal justice system frequently need community-based drug and alcohol abuse treatment and other services. To reduce the risk of relapse to illicit drugs and criminal recidivism, criminal justice agencies may need to establish collaborations with substance abuse treatment and other community-based service providers. Although there are many variations of interorganizational relationships, the nature of these interagency collaborations among justice agencies and treatment providers has received little systematic study. As a first step, we present an instrument to measure interagency collaboration and integration activities using items in the National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices Surveys conducted as part of the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS). Collaboration and integration activities related to drug-involved offenders were examined between substance abuse treatment providers, correctional agencies, and the judiciary. The measurement scale reliably identified two levels of collaboration: less structured, informal networking and coordination and more structured and formalized levels of cooperation and collaboration. An illustration of the use of the systems integration tool is presented.