Reducing Drug Use and HIV Risk in Drug-dependent Adults Arrested for Prostitution
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2014-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The combination of using injection drugs, smoking crack cocaine, having multiple sex
partners, and inconsistent condom use results in substantial risk for acquiring and
transmitting HIV, and many drug dependent adults who have been arrested on charges of
prostitution fit this profile. Existing interventions for reducing HIV risk have had limited
efficacy in drug-dependent sex workers, and criminal justice approaches have been ineffective
despite their high cost. A potentially ideal alternative is to divert drug-dependent
arrestees from prosecution to a treatment that reduces drug use and HIV sex risk behaviors,
while providing job skills training and promoting community employment to alleviate the
financial need to continue sex work. In order to provide an effective therapeutic alternative
to criminal prosecution, the investigators propose to develop a multifaceted intervention
that includes opiate agonist treatment (i.e., methadone OR buprenorphine) and the Therapeutic
Workplace. The Therapeutic Workplace is a supported environment in which participants are
required to provide drug-free urine samples to access paid job skills training or employment
and to maintain the maximum rate of pay. The overall intervention is designed to reduce drug
use and HIV risk behaviors, and simultaneously promote employment. The proposed project is a
2-year Stage I behavior therapy development effort that will include the development,
manualization and pilot testing of a Therapeutic Workplace intervention tailored to
drug-dependent adults arrested for prostitution. In the pilot study, the investigators will
recruit opiate- and cocaine-dependent adults arrested for prostitution from the Eastside
District Court in Baltimore. Eligible individuals will be offered methadone treatment in lieu
of prosecution and will be required to remain in methadone treatment for 90 days to have the
charges against them dropped. After enrolling in opiate agonist treatment, the diverted
individuals will be invited to participate in the pilot study. Interested individuals will be
randomly assigned to receive the standard opiate agonist treatment services or these services
plus the Therapeutic Workplace. The Therapeutic Workplace has two phases. In Phase 1,
participants will be offered four months of stipend-supported job training in the Therapeutic
Workplace. In Phase 2, participants will be encouraged to seek employment in a community job
and will receive wage subsidies for four months for maintaining community employment or
engaging in supervised job seeking. Throughout both phases, participants will be required to
provide drug-free urine samples to receive Therapeutic Workplace wages (training stipends in
Phase 1 and wage subsidies in Phase 2). The wage subsidy program will include drug testing
managed by a national supplier of drug-free workplace services. Overall, this treatment could
serve as a novel and ideal intervention for drug-dependent adults arrested for prostitution
while reducing criminal justice costs.
Phase:
Phase 1
Details
Lead Sponsor:
Johns Hopkins University
Collaborator:
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Treatments:
Buprenorphine Buprenorphine, Naloxone Drug Combination Methadone