| ||||||
Transitional Jobs for Ex-Prisoners |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
From MDRC: This paper presents early results from an evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) in New York City, a highly-regarded employment program for former prisoners. These ex-prisoners, many of them parents of children receiving welfare, face serious obstacles to successful reentry, and rates of recidivism are high. After a four-day job readiness class, participants are placed in temporary, minimum-wage jobs with crews that work under contract to city and state agencies. It uses a random assignment design: in 2004 and 2005, nearly 1,000 people were assigned, at random, to the regular CEO program or to receive basic job search assistance (this is called the control group). The research team is following both groups for several years, using surveys and administrative data to measure the program's impact on employment, recidivism, and other outcomes. By the end of the first year of follow-up, the program and control groups were equally likely to be employed. There were also small but statistically significant decreases in two key measures of recidivism --- felony convictions and incarceration for new crimes --- during Year 1, but no effects on other measures. These results are less certain because the sample sizes are relatively small, but they show a potentially important pattern: Among those who came to CEO within three months after release, program group members were significantly less likely to have their parole revoked, to be convicted of a felony, and to be reincarcerated. The study will eventually include three years of follow-up and will incorporate several additional data sources, including records of New York City jail stays and a survey of more than 500 sample members.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
