NCJ Number
223632
Date Published
2008
Length
194 pages
Annotation
This report presents the results of an outcome evaluation of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' Community Orientation and Reintegration program; a two-phase reentry plan to assist offenders being released from incarceration.
Abstract
Reducing recidivism, increasing the employment rates and wages for program participants, and decreasing post-release substance abuse are important goals of the Community Orientation and Reintegration (COR) programs. The results of this report showed failures for the COR program completers compared to the control group for almost every recidivism, employment, and substance abuse measure used in the outcome evaluation. The findings do not support COR's success in achieving the goals of the program. The overall recommendation for COR is the elimination of the COR program as it is currently designed. A complete redesign of how the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) will put reentry into practice in the future is needed. There is the need to take the lessons learned from COR and use those lessons to strengthen and improve the DOC's approach to reentry programming for inmates. Any new reentry program that the DOC develops should adopt the same goals that COR has: reducing recidivism, increasing employment opportunities, and decreasing substance abuse for offenders being released from prison without compromising public safety. COR, implemented in 2001 is delivered both inside the prison (Phase I) and after release from incarceration while the offender is completing a commitment to the Community Corrections Center (Phase II). The focus of this evaluative study, supported by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), was on Phase I which emphasized employment, family, finances, anger management, health and wellness, relapse prevention for drugs and alcohol, character development, and spirituality. Tables, references, appendices