Improving the Success of Reentry Programs: Identifying the Impact of Service-Need Fit on Recidivism

This project uses data from the federal Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI), to examine which characteristics of offenders influence the extent to which reentry services are matched with their risk-need profiles, and whether the degree of matching or "fit" moderates the impact of reentry services on recidivism. The specific aim of this research is to address a gap in our knowledge about how service matching and responsivity to offenders; needs impacts the effectiveness of reentry programs. The proposed research study is intended to further our understanding of how reentry services are allocated, the extent to which treatments and services are matched with offender risk-need profiles, and the effect of service fit on recidivism in a large sample of serious and violent male and female offenders aged 35 and under from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and geographic locations across the United States. Types of people receiving which type of reentry services will be described in order to learn which observable characteristics of offenders are related to risk and need. A "degree of fit index" will be developed to assess the correspondence between risk-need profiles and services received. A selection model will be developed using the logic of propensity score analysis to examine which of the observable characteristics of individuals predict the level of correspondence between risk-need profile and service provision. Cox proportional hazards regression will be used to assess time to recidivism at different levels of risk-need/service correspondence adjusting for selection bias. ca/ncf