Reentry Works

Abstract

Spurred by large increases in prison populations and other recent sentencing and correctional trends, the federal government has supported the development and implementation of Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiatives (SVORI) nationwide. While existing research demonstrates the effectiveness of the separate components of these programs (e.g., matching services to inmate needs, combining community supervision and rehabilitative services), few if any evaluations of the effectiveness of these new coordinated reentry interventions have yet been published. The current study examines the implementation and effectiveness of a small SVORI program in the upper-Midwest, comparing inmates receiving enhanced reentry services to a sample of similar prisoners receiving only traditional prison/parole services. Results reveal that the reentry program successfully reached its target population of serious and violent offenders, provided more referrals to community-based services, and increased drug testing frequency during parole. Reentry participants were also less likely to test positive for drug use while on parole, had similar parole revocation rates and a 60% lower likelihood of post-parole rearrest relative to the comparison sample. Limitations of the study, as well as implication for reentry programming and future research are discussed.

Key Words:

• Offender reentry
• recidivism
• program evaluation