Using RSAT funds to expand access to evidence-based substance use treatment in correctional settings

Correctional leaders face a difficult reality: the need for substance use treatment has never been greater, yet staffing shortages, budget constraints, and growing program demands continue to challenge service delivery.

According to the National Institutes of Health, an estimated 65% of incarcerated individuals meet criteria for a substance use disorder. At the same time, people leaving incarceration face dramatically elevated overdose risks, particularly during the first weeks after release.

The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) Program was created to help correctional agencies address this challenge by supporting evidence-based substance use treatment for incarcerated individuals. For many agencies, however, a key question remains:

How can we expand access to high-quality treatment without compromising fidelity, overburdening staff, or abandoning the elements that make treatment effective in the first place?

Increasingly, correctional agencies are finding that tablet-based treatment tools can be part of the answer.

When thoughtfully implemented, tablet-based treatment curricula can help agencies:

• Extend treatment beyond scheduled group sessions.

• Increase participant engagement.

• Support individualized treatment planning.

• Strengthen continuity of care.

• And preserve the essential human relationships that drive lasting recovery.

  
  

Understanding the purpose of RSAT funding

The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program, administered through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, was designed to support residential treatment services for incarcerated individuals with substance use disorders. Beyond treatment itself, RSAT encourages agencies to provide comprehensive programming that addresses criminal thinking, recovery skills, reentry preparation, and continuity of care.

Importantly, RSAT is not simply about delivering more programming hours. It’s intended to support evidence-based treatment interventions that reduce substance use, lower recidivism, and improve long-term outcomes. This means moving beyond educational programming and providing structured opportunities for self-reflection, cognitive restructuring, skill development, peer support, and behavioral practice.

What makes prison-based substance use treatment effective?

Over the past several decades, correctional treatment research has consistently demonstrated that effective substance use treatment extends beyond didactic instruction.

Programs such as the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) have become widely recognized because they address the broader behavioral, cognitive, and social factors that contribute to both substance use and criminal behavior.

Evidence-based correctional treatment typically incorporates several core elements:

• Cognitive-behavioral interventions that help participants recognize and change harmful thinking patterns.
• Skill-building focused on problem solving, emotional regulation, self-management, and decision-making.
• Recovery-oriented approaches that emphasize long-term lifestyle change rather than short-term abstinence.
• Opportunities to develop healthier relationships and reduce antisocial peer influences.
• Structured environments that promote accountability, responsibility, and prosocial behavior.

These principles reflect the philosophy that lasting recovery requires skill development across a number of important life areas.  

The modified therapeutic community: The heart of RDAP

One of the defining features of RDAP and similar correctional treatment models is the use of a modified therapeutic community (MTC).

In a modified therapeutic community, recovery is not viewed as an individual process occurring in isolation. Instead, the treatment community itself becomes a catalyst for change.

Participants learn from one another, practice accountability, provide support and feedback to one another, and model behaviors expected in a healthy, prosocial community environment. Over time, the community itself reinforces new ways of thinking and behaving.

This approach recognizes that many individuals entering treatment have experienced years of dysfunctional relationships, antisocial peer influences, and environments that reinforced unhealthy behaviors. The therapeutic community creates opportunities to practice something different.

Technology does not replace treatment

One of the most common misconceptions about digital treatment platforms is that they are intended to replace counselors, treatment specialists, group facilitators, or therapeutic communities.

Effective correctional agencies know that technology cannot replace human relationships. What digital tools can do is expand opportunities for engagement between treatment sessions. Rather than limiting therapeutic work to scheduled programming hours, participants can continue exploring recovery concepts, completing structured reflective exercises, building cognitive-behavioral skills, and practicing new ways of thinking throughout the week.

When implemented effectively, tablet-based curricula allow participants to engage with therapeutic content during times when traditional treatment staff may not be available. Instead of waiting for the next scheduled group, participants can continue developing recovery skills, reinforcing treatment concepts, and preparing for future discussions with staff and peers.

In many ways, digital delivery increases treatment dosage while preserving the core elements of the therapeutic community that make recovery possible.

How digital delivery supports RSAT goals

For correctional leaders, the question is not whether technology is innovative. The question is whether it helps agencies achieve the outcomes RSAT funding was designed to support.

When evaluated through that lens, digital treatment platforms offer several advantages.

Expanding access to treatment

Many facilities struggle to meet treatment demand. Waitlists, staffing shortages, housing restrictions, transportation challenges within institutions, and competing operational priorities can all limit access to programming.

Digital treatment tools can help agencies extend the reach of existing treatment resources by providing participants with structured opportunities for engagement outside of scheduled group and individual sessions.

This does not eliminate the need for counselors or treatment groups. Rather, it allows participants to continue participating in therapeutic activities during periods when direct staff interaction is not possible.

For agencies seeking to maximize the impact of limited treatment resources, this can significantly increase the amount of meaningful therapeutic engagement participants receive throughout their incarceration.