A Longitudinal Follow-up Study to the 2009 Second Chance Act Adult Demonstration RCT Impact Study

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

Abstract

This presentation will describe the findings from a longitudinal impact study of re-entry programs, approximately 10 to 12 years after participants first began participating in the research. The programs were seven Second Chance Act (SCA) Adult Demonstration Programs, first awarded grant funds by the U.S. Department of Justice in FY 2009. These grantees included state departments of corrections and other local government agencies, operating in partnership with numerous other correctional and community-based organizations. The programs provided pre- and post-release services to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals with the goal of reducing recidivism by helping them reintegrate into their communities. The focal point of both past and current research was a randomized control trial (RCT) design, whereby 966 individuals eligible for SCA were randomly assigned from 2011 to 2013 into either a program group, whose members were able to participate in individualized SCA services, or a control group whose members were able to receive all re-entry services otherwise available, but not individualized SCA services.

Previously, NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) and its partners, Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) and MDRC, conducted an impact analysis of these SCA grantees, measuring the SCA program’s impact on recidivism (re-arrests, re-convictions, and re-incarcerations), employment and earnings, and other outcomes, at 18 months (using survey and administrative data) and 30 months (using administrative data from various federal, state, and local government agencies) after random assignment. That research found that the program did not have any impact on recidivism, but it did on employment in the seventh quarter after random assignment, and on earnings in the seventh and eighth quarters after random assignment. 

NORC and SPR conducted the current, longitudinal analysis, which collected new survey and administrative data on the same group of study participants, approximately 10 to 12 years after random assignment. This analysis estimated the impacts of the program on participant outcomes that were identical or similar to those examined in the prior research, including recidivism (arrests, convictions, and both jail and prison incarceration), earnings and employment, and those related to housing, benefits use, etc. The analysis also examined the impacts of the program on participant outcomes for three key subgroups—men/women, under 30/30 and over, and lower/higher risk level—at the time of random assignment. This presentation will report on these findings and discuss the implications of the research for: policymakers at federal, state, and local government levels; researchers; and others interested in improving the process of helping former prisoners integrate into society.

Authors

• Christian Geckeler, Social Policy Research Associates
  Presenting Author

• Andrew Wiegand, Social Policy Research Associates
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Pam Loose
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Michael A Schultz, NORC at the University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Ashley Jean Hendrickson
  Non-Presenting Co-Author