Results revealed that although family involvement has been widely regarded as important to reintegration experiences, the offenders in this study reported that their families had a negative effect on their rehabilitation and reintegration process. This finding was especially significant among offenders who reunited with their spouse. The authors note that such findings tend to occur among families that did not participate in any kind of treatment and as a result were unfamiliar with the special needs of the recovering offender and the recovery process itself. Since the family is an important factor in the process of becoming a drug addict, the family should also be considered an important part of the recovery process. Participants were 39 ex-inmates who completed semistructured interviews about their experiences during the rehabilitation process and about their perceptions of their integration back into the community. Questions about family reunification and sources of support were also included. Participants were recruited from a listing of Sharon prison program participants who completed the prison-based therapeutic community program between 1994 and 1997. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Future studies should focus on the experiences of female drug addicts returning to their families after completing prison-based drug treatment programming. Notes, references