NCJ Number
168107
Date Published
1997
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This report presents the methods to be used by the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council (CJPC) to evaluate six types of rehabilitation programs, including inmate drug treatment, sex offender, and pre-release programs.
Abstract
The plan was developed after the CJPC recommended to the legislatures Senate Criminal Justice Committee that the system-wide recidivism rates not be used as a performance measure because it does not indicate the performance of specific rehabilitation programs. The CJPC recommended that recidivism rates be used as a performance measure for programs that have as their stated goal the reduction of recidivism. The evaluation plan covers: (1) the Prerelease Substance Abuse Treatment Program, (2) the In-prison Therapeutic Community Program, (3) the Sex Offender Treatment Program, (4) the Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility Program, and Pre-release Center, and the Values Based Pre-release Program. The evaluation will be based on analyses of the recidivism rates over time of offenders participating in these programs compared to the recidivism rates of similar offenders who did not participant. The CJPC will analyze cost-effectiveness by examining the relationship between the State investment in a rehabilitation tier program and the return on the State investment as measured by reincarceration costs associated with recidivism rates. Process evaluations will also be conducted to determine how effectively the rehabilitation tier programs are being implemented.