The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (2014) for Incarcerated Young Adult Offenders

• In Event: Prisoners' Pressures, Experiences, Reentry, and Post-release Outcomes

Abstract

Young adult offenders present a complex challenge to the criminal justice system. Based on a recent internal assessment of incarcerated youth by the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC), there were approximately 22 percent of juvenile offenders during the period of 2009-2014 who were re-admitted as an adult to IDOC after release from a juvenile correctional facility. This study examines the benefits from the U.S. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which was signed into law by President Obama on July 22, 2014, for incarcerated young adult offenders in correctional facilities.

Authors

• Taiping Ho, Ball State University

• Susan Lockwood, Indiana Department of Correction

• John Nally, Indiana Department of Correction