RD210 - Virginia Prisoner Reentry Evaluation Programs - Interim Report


Executive Summary:
Offender reentry programs in Virginia seek to assist adult and juvenile offenders transitioning back into their communities following incarceration or other correctional supervision. The goal of these programs is to help offenders obtain basic services, job placement, and educational opportunities so they may return to the community and lead meaningful, productive, and - most importantly - crime free lives.

In recent years, prisoner reentry in Virginia has received increased attention as correctional populations and correctional expenditures have increased. As a result, the 2007-2008 Budget Bill directed the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) to evaluate the effectiveness of Virginia’s offender reentry programs in reducing recidivism. DCJS will provide the General Assembly with a report on the evaluation by October 1 of each year. Work on this evaluation study began in July 2007.

This is the first report of this evaluation study, and lays the groundwork for more detailed examinations of Virginia’s reentry programs.

Specifically, this report contains the following:

• An overview of national reentry programs and relevant initiatives in other states. This review indicates federal reentry programs such as the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, the Transition from Prison to Community Initiative, and Reentry Courts are having a positive impact toward reducing recidivism. Reentry programs in other states, including New York’s “Stay’n Out” program and Oregon’s Cornerstone program also show promise.

• An overview of recent Virginia statewide reentry initiatives. This review focuses on reentry initiatives by the Executive and Legislative branches, including the Prisoner Reentry Policy Academy established by Executive Order # 22 (2006) and the work of several legislative joint subcommittees studying prisoner reentry issues.

• An overview of the offender reentry programs administered or operated by Virginia’s state public safety agencies. This review examines pre-release and post-incarceration reentry programs of the Departments of Correctional Education, Corrections, Juvenile Justice, Social Services, and Criminal Justice Services. The review also summarizes efforts currently underway by these agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs.

• A detailed examination of Virginia’s Offender Reentry and Transition Services (ORTS) Program. The ORTS program, grant funded and administered by DCJS, currently includes nine locally operated programs. The nine programs vary in the types and level of reentry services they provide, and each is tailored to the needs of offenders in the local community. The main focus of this report is Virginia’s ORTS program. The ORTS program is designed to “support professional services that increase successful reentry and reintegration into communities by incarcerated adult offenders.” The ORTS program has the following goals:

• Assist and prepare incarcerated adult offenders to successfully reintegrate into society.

• Assist released adult offenders in locating and retaining employment.

• Assist released offenders with structured and supportive family and counseling services.

• Develop and maintain community support systems for adult offenders using volunteers and existing community agencies and services.

Although the ORTS programs are required to adhere to the program’s purpose and goals listed above, they are encouraged to produce their own models that work best in their communities and address their particular regional needs and circumstances. The nine ORTS programs currently cover approximately 70% of the localities in Virginia.

DCJS is currently working with the ORTS sites to identify, develop and organize information required for evaluating both the processes whereby the programs provide services, and the impacts the programs have on improving reentry success and reducing recidivism. Over the next several years, DCJS intends to partner with ORTS, other reentry sites, and other Virginia agencies to develop an outcome evaluation methodology for adult reentry programs in Virginia.

During mid-2007, DCJS conducted site visits, surveys, and made other contacts with the nine ORTS programs to determine their “readiness for evaluation.” For the process evaluation, this determination examined whether the sites have data to address basic questions about program implementation and operations. The review found that most of the ORTS programs were somewhat prepared for a process evaluation and that most had made progress in implementing their own process evaluations. The ability of the management information systems at the sites to provide data needed for the evaluation is a question, and will have to be examined further. Over the next year, DCJS will work with the ORTS sites to continue to improve their process evaluation methods and develop “best practices” documents based on their own experiences and those of other sites around the country.

DCJS will also develop a methodology for measuring the outcomes for each of the ORTS programs by determining if program participation, individual client characteristics, and program characteristics predict short, medium, and long term outcomes for each of the programs. The primary participant outcome measure will be recidivism – how likely are program participants to engage in criminal activity following their release. The study will use a broad range of recidivism measures, and will establish longitudinal parameters for measurement.

In addition to examining the impact of ORTS participation on recidivism, DCJS will emphasize a strengthbased evaluation that focuses on multiple measures of success, such as educational attainment, employment success, family, stability, paying taxes, and other measures.

In addition to developing and conducting the detailed evaluation of the ORTS program, DCJS will continue to gather additional information on the characteristics and status of the various reentry programs administered or operated by the Departments of Correctional Education, Corrections, Juvenile Justice, Social Services, and Criminal Justice Services. Special consideration will be given to documenting and examining the evaluations previously or currently being conducted on these programs.