Update: Evaluating Back on Track – Los Angeles – Preliminary Outcomes

• In Event: Reentry Programs: Strategies, Challenges, & Effectiveness

Abstract

The Back on Track—Los Angeles (BOT—LA) re-entry program, designed to address those affected by Assembly Bill 109 (Public Safety Realignment), began in early 2015. This program addresses multiple areas of participant needs: education needs through life skills programming, remedial education, college, and vocational courses; employment needs through an employment developer; antisocial cognitions and other criminogenic needs through courses such as Thinking for a Change, anger replacement therapy, and substance abuse curriculum. BOT-LA also offers case managers who address housing and other transitional needs in cooperation with probation coaches. Participants eligible for this program are serving time in county jail, must be between 18 and 65, and must be serving time for a non-serious, non-sexual, non-violent offense with 6 to 18 months remaining on their sentence. This presentation will focus on the comparison of BOT-LA participants to an equivalent control group, across several dynamic measures gathered at two points in time (pre-programming, and at the point of release). One-year recidivism data (new arrest post-release within one year) will be presented as well. This project is ongoing, and will continue until 2020.

Authors

• Alexander M. Holsinger, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Randie C. Chance, Office of the Attorney General, California Department of Justice

• Kevin Walker, Office of the Attorney General, California Department of Justice