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1. Introduction
The US incarcerates more individuals both in absolute terms and per capita than does any other country in the world ([63] Walmsley, 2009). Drug crimes and other non-violent crimes such as property crimes account for 64 percent of the US female state prison population ([20] Guerino et al. , 2011). As a result, women tend to serve short sentences (less than a year) and quickly return to the community ([5] Bonczar, 2011). Understanding the processes by which women relapse to substances or maintain sobriety as they re-enter the community from prison is critical to designing successful aftercare strategies to prevent substance relapse and reincarceration.
Although the criminal justice system and its treatments have historically been designed for men, the increasing number of incarcerated women, especially substance-involved women, has brought more attention to their needs. Research on samples entering prison addiction treatment has found that, prior to prison, women used drugs more frequently, used harder drugs, and used them for different reasons than do men (pain alleviation vs euphoria; [33] Langan and Pelissier, 2001; [40] Messina et al. , 2003). Substance-involved female offenders are also more likely than male offenders to have a spouse or close friend with a drug problem ([33] Langan and Pelissier, 2001; [40], [39] Messina et al. , 2003, 2006; [47] Pelissier et al. , 2003). Other issues that complicate re-entry, such as low levels of education, poor vocational skills, co-occurring mental health problems, suicidality, physical, or sexual abuse, and poor physical health, and childcare responsibilities are more common among substance-involved incarcerated women than among substance-involved incarcerated men ([1] Adams et al. , 2008; [18] Greenfield et al. , 2007; [33] Langan and Pelissier, 2001; [40], [39] Messina et al. , 2003, 2006; [47] Pelissier et al. , 2003; [66] Zlotnick et al. , 2008). These risks are in addition to those posed to all re-entering populations, including difficulties finding housing and employment, resurgence of high-risk behavior ([46] Pelissier et al. , 2007), and overdose ([4] Binswanger et al. , 2011; [41] Moller et al. , 2010).
Co-occurring mental health disorders are especially common among substance-using incarcerated women ([38] Melnick et al. , 2008). For example, 32-38 percent of women in prison substance use treatment meet lifetime criteria for...