FY 2011 Second Chance Act Adult Offender Reentry Demonstration Projects: Evaluability Assessment of the Solano County (CA) Women's Reentry Achievement Program

• NCJ Number: 243980
• Author(s): Janeen Buck Willison; Danielle Steffey; Kelly Walsh; Erin Kennedy
• Date Published: September 2012
• Length: 31 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2012-R2-CX-0032
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
• Corporate Author: The Urban Institute; RTI International
• Sale Source: NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For the executive summary of the full report, see NCJ-243978; and for the other individual site reports, see NCJ-243979 and NCJ-243981-88.

Annotation

This study conducted an evaluability assessment (determination of whether a project is a candidate for meaningful evaluation) of the Solano County (California) Women's Reentry Achievement Program, a FY 2011 Second Chance Act (SCA) demonstration site, whose grant-mandated goals are to increase reentry programming for returning prisoners and their families; reduce recidivism of program participants by 50 percent over 5 years, reduce parole violations, and improve reintegration outcomes.

Abstract

Solano County's Women's Reentry Achievement Program (WRAP) uses a gender-responsive, evidence-based, offender-informed approach in addressing the barriers facing female offenders as they transition from jail to the community. Its current features would allow for a relatively rigorous evaluation research design. Impact, outcome, process, and cost evaluations will likely produce actionable information for practitioners, program developers, and policymakers involved in reentry for female offenders. The WRAP leadership expressed concern about a number of issues that could influence the program's evaluability. Program funding ends in September 2013, which could undermine the maintenance of pre-release case management services. The extent to which post-release components would be retained was unclear. This could adversely affect the program's intensive case management, housing support, and assistance with basic needs. The program planned to halt recruitment in early spring in order to ensure all newly enrolled participants will be released in time to access a full 180 days of post-release support prior to the grant's conclusion in September 2013. Although staff does not anticipate making any changes to the program should additional funding be provided, the program was moving forward with its original vision of working also with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) offenders returning to Solano County. Details of that work were still emerging. The EA's methodology and WRAP's program components and activities are described. 3 exhibits, 6 references, and appended logic models