Evaluation of WaySafe: A Disease-Risk Reduction Curriculum for Substance-Abusing Offenders

• An interactive curriculum, WaySafe, was developed to improve decision-making around health risk behaviors for incarcerated offenders in their last phase of substance abuse treatment.
• The curriculum was administered to over 600 offenders in 8 facilities in 2 different states.
• Compared to offenders receiving treatment as usual, those who participated in WaySafe reported higher post-test knowledge, confidence, and motivation around avoiding risky behaviors.
• Positive results were also shown in each of the 8 facilities that differed by gender, length of stay and treatment vendor demonstrating robustness of the curriculum.

With a focus on reducing disease risk behavior in the community, a six-session curriculum, WaySafe, was developed to increase positive decision-making skills among soon-to-be-released inmates participating in a therapeutic community substance abuse treatment program. The intervention used TCU Mapping-Enhanced Counseling as an approach to focus on cognitive aspects of risky sexual and drug use behaviors in an effort to improve problem recognition, commitment to change, and strategies for avoiding behavioral risks of infections. A total of 1393 inmates from eight different institutions in two states were randomly assigned to receive WaySafe or treatment as usual (TAU). Baseline and follow-up surveys measured knowledge, confidence, and motivation regarding general HIV information, risky sex and drug use, HIV testing, and risk reduction skills. WaySafe participants had significantly better scores on all measures at follow-up than did TAU participants, supporting the efficacy of WaySafe in improving knowledge, motivation, and confidence in avoiding risky behaviors.