Recidivism and Barriers to Reintegration: A Field Experiment Encouraging Use of Reentry Support

• In Event: Beyond Bars: Rethinking Reentry Through Policy, Partnership, and Practice

Abstract

Difficult-to-reach population (such as the homeless, the previously incarcerated, those with addiction problems, etc) have to navigate multiple intensive needs. Wraparound and intensive services appear to be necessary, however, RCTs have often shown neutral or even negative effects. Compliance is usually very low for this population, so it's not clear whether these services would have been better at some "optimal dose" or with a better match of service type to individuals. In this RCT,  531 previously incarcerated persons are offered a monetary incentive to complete different dosages of visits (either three or five) to a reentry support service provider where they themselves choose the type of service they want to to use.  The incentive groups increased visits, and one extra visit reduces rearrests three years after study enrollment by six percentage points - driven by Black participants. We also saw a shift in the types of services requested by participants throughout their interaction with the nonprofit. The study speaks to the importance of considering first-stage heterogeneity and heterogeneous treatment effects in evaluating the impact of services to these populations.

Author

• Sera Linardi, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author