Psychosocial Interventions for Substance-Abusing Criminal Offenders: Borrowing US Experience for the Chinese Context

Research and evaluation studies on in-prison interventions and community rehabilitative programs in the USA have made much progress in recent decades and produced many promising findings that can be shared and perhaps emulated in countries with emerging substance misuse problems. Drawing from our own research and a review of the literature on promising psychosocial interventions—most notably, cognitive–behavioral interventions, contingency management, and motivational interviewing, we reflect on what we have personally learned from the principles and research accumulated from the USA with a particular application for the Chinese context. The best lessons from decades of research in this field in the USA include: (1) avoid reinventing the wheel and embrace the basic principles of effective psychosocial interventions, (2) develop a treatment environment that humanizes substance misusers and promotes social reintegration, and (3) employ inexpensive but rigorous evaluation strategies to provide evidence for incremental improvement in treatment. Specific challenges in the Chinese sociocultural context are also discussed and recommendations made for improved access and services in the treatment of substance misuse in the world’s most populous country.