This resource brief explores the limitations of recidivism as a measure of reentry success and why other outcomes should be measured. It identifies alternative outcome measures and data sources that reentry programs can use to gauge program effectiveness and participant progress in areas relevant to their respective programs. It also discusses the importance of engaging people with direct reentry experience—either as program participants or staff—in defining meaningful outcome measures.
This book finds that the current measures of success for individuals released from prison are inadequate. The use of recidivism rates to evaluate post-release success ignores significant research on how and why individuals cease to commit crimes, as well as the important role of structural factors in shaping post-release outcomes. This book highlights the unique and essential insights held by those who have experienced incarceration and proposes that the development and implementation of new measures of post-release success would significantly benefit from active engagement with…
This brief from the Evaluation and Sustainability Training and Technical Assistance (ES TTA) team at RTI International and the Center for Court Innovation discusses best practices in protecting and ensuring the confidentiality of participant data.
This brief also provides tips that are relevant to reentry practitioners seeking to protect client data as well as to research partners who are collecting or working with data as part of their evaluation.
This resource brief from the Evaluation and Sustainability Training and Technical Assistance (ES TTA) Project at RTI International and the Center for Court Innovation provides guidance on key decisions that need to be made when undertaking primary data collection with reentering populations for reentry program evaluation.
The brief helps evaluators determine what data need to be collected, from whom, when, and how, and summarizes best practices in designing your data collection instrument and developing and implementing data collection protocols.
Participant satisfaction surveys help behavioral health-criminal justice programs assess the quality of service being provided and their impact on individual outcomes, as well as help them to determine if there are disparities in program and service delivery. This brief presents important considerations when developing these surveys for people with behavioral health needs in the criminal justice system and ways to integrate survey feedback meaningfully.
This brief sets forth guiding values and recommendations for grounding prison research in principles of racial equity. These values are intended to help researchers more accurately capture and measure racial biases, and design and conduct research that can identify and disrupt systemic biases.
In this column, political scientist and historian Kaneesha Johnson traces the changing form and content of prison data and questions how and why different communities and institutions collect the data they do. In particular, she compares the data gathered about crime and incarceration by the U.S. government with data gathered by incarcerated people and their communities, in part to show that what we measure, collect, and count is always a reflection of the world we are trying to create.
This resource details key elements of successful strategies in proposing and conducting jail-based research.
The 2023 Colby College Justice Think Tank included 12 scholars from across all five Maine prisons, selected through a competitive application process and provided a stiped by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison. During 2023, the Justice Think Tank Fellows conducted a research project of their own design, supported by Colby faculty and staff "walkalongs" who helped with document access, interview arrangements, and general support. The selected topic for 2023 was the restorative alternatives that Maine could develop to keep emerging adults out of the criminal legal system, that could…
This user-friendly Language Matters Guide builds on Jobs for the Future's 40 years of experience in the education and workforce ecosystem. The guide offers suggestions on how to write and speak about people in ways that promote equity, dignity, and a focus on each individual's potential—rather than labeling them based on the systemic barriers they face.
Topics covered include skills and socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, criminal justice, and more. Because language is fluid, the recommendations will evolve.
