The Evaluation of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry

Project Summary for 2003-RE-CX-K101 The objectives of this project was to assess the impact of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI). The applicant (in partnership with Urban Institute) proposes to design and implement a rigorous, multidisciplinary evaluation including (1) a 1-year implementation assessment and design, which will generate programmatic data on all 68 sites; (2) a 4-year impact assessment, which will compare key outcomes between offenders who do and do not receive reentry services in 10 selected sites; and (3) a cost-benefit analysis, which will determine the additional expenditures and resources required to operate a reentry program and what returns are on this investment. Funding will be provided at this time for only Phase I of the project. The specific research questions are designed to determine the extent to which the initiative leads to more coordinated planning and intergrated services among partner agencies; reentry participants receive more individualized and comprehensive services than comparison subjects; reentry participants demonstrate better outcomes than comparison subjects; and the benefits derived from reentry programs exceed the costs. The Phase I and II evaluation proposes to use several measurement strategies, including web-based data collection to generate programmatic data throughout the study (68 sites); annual key staff interviews with program and agency representatives (10 sites); annual site visits (10 sites); offender interviews conducted at 1, 4, 13, and 25 months post-release (10 sites); and administrative data from service providers and criminal justice agencies (10 sites). The dissemination strategy will involve significant collaboration with policymakers and practitioners and will generate several Phase I reports, including A National Portrait of the SVOR Initiative and a comprehensive Evaluation Design Report. ca/ncf