The purpose of the research is to assess the implementation, effects, and cost-effectiveness of 8 adult reentry programs funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance in FY2010 and FY2011. The evaluation will assess whether the programs achieved the primary goals of reducing recidivism and increasing public safety, as well as increased employment and education opportunities, reduced violations of conditions of release, as well as other outcomes of interest. The research design includes a retrospective outcome study using administrative data from all sites and a prospective outcome study incorporating prerelease and one round of follow-up interviews with approximately 40 treatment and 40 comparison cases in each site. Supplemental funds have been provided to allow the completion of an additional task for the SCA evaluation. The evaluation team will administer a 12-month follow-up interview to participants in the prospective outcome study to measure reentry experiences and outcomes since the previous interview. The one-hour interviews will be conducted approximately 12 months following the prerelease interviews and will be analyzed in conjunction with the other two waves of interviews. The interview will cover the same topics as the 4-month interview. Oral swab samples will be collected for drug testing of non-incarcerated respondents. Analyses of 12-month data will allow the sustainability of any short-term program effects (documented in the 4-month interview data) to be determined, as well as any "delayed effects" (i.e., effects that were not observed at 4 months but that may be observed at 12 months) to be identified. Further, having three waves of interviews allows trajectories of change over time to be assessed, such that models can be run to test how trajectories in attitudinal, employment, and related mechanisms predict transformations away or toward recidivism. The 12-month interview data will be used to examine the effects of program participation on trajectories of employment, education, child support payment, housing, substance abuse, criminal behavior, and participation in substance abuse and mental health services. Mediational Latent Growth Curve models will be used to test how these outcome trajectories predict transformations away or towards recidivism. In addition the effect of program participation on outcomes at 12 months, controlling for the predictors listed above using fixed effects linear or logistic regression models, will be estimated. Findings from the evaluation will be disseminated through practitioner- and research-focused research briefs, manuscripts, and conference presentations. The final report and public use datasets will include findings and data from the 12-month interviews.ca/ncf
