Evaluation of Statewide Ridge House Collaborative

A. Background

This project satisfies requirements as stated in NIJ's Solicitation For Evaluations Of Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Discretionary Projects, 2003. It was recommended for funding by a proposal review committee and NIJ staff.

B. Project Description-Abstract

The objective of this research is to assess the program effectiveness, cost benefits and potential program transferability of Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention discretionary projects. The particular program to be studied is Ridge House Residential and is administered by a faith-based organization providing temporary housing, employment referral and social service referral to released prisoners. Program effectiveness will be assessed through a process and outcome evaluation that includes information on the impacts of the program on recidivism, employment, housing, and drug use. The applicant proposes to design and implement a four-year evaluation in which Ridge House participants will be compared with parolees who could not attend Ridge House due only to space limitations. The last admissions to the study will be tracked for one year. Data will be collected through official DOC records, program records, surveys, interviews and observation. Analyses will include event history analyses using hazard rates to account for the varying amounts of time individuals were exposed to the opportunity to re-offend.