This article reports on the evaluation of the Federal Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI), which is assessing the impact on postrelease offender behavior of reentry programs that received Federal grant monies in 2002-2003.
The findings showed that 2 years following the grant award, only 74 percent of the programs reported being fully operational, and 31 percent of those reported taking just over 12 months to achieve full implementation. Although most programs are targeting a broad range of offenders, the evaluation found that the enrollment of participants has been a significant challenge in many sites where enrollments are below expectation. Most programs reported providing a variety of services and programs to participants, with the types and quantities varying significantly among programs. Services have tended to give priority to employment/vocational training and community integration, with less attention to education/skills building, family support/unification, physical health, mental health, or substance abuse. Regarding models for service delivery, the majority of programs use continuity of care models, "boundary spanners" to coordinate services for returning prisoners, one-stop shops for service delivery, and a "wrap-around" approach for service delivery. The multisite evaluation of SVORI identified the approaches and components of the 890 individual programs through surveys of the program directors, telephone interviews, and selected site visits. The common aims of the SVORI programs are to improve participants' quality of life and self-sufficiency though employment, housing, family, and community involvement; to improve health by addressing substance use and physical and mental health; to reduce criminality through supervision and the monitoring of noncompliance; and to achieve systems change through multiagency collaboration and case-management strategies. 2 tables, 4 figures, 9 references, and appended SVORI impact and cost-effectiveness evaluation design
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