Funded by the National Institute of Justice, this project is designed to evaluate the Second Chance programs which were designed to facilitate the successful re-entry of prisoners to their communities and include strategies to reduce recidivism and subsequent criminal behavior, enhance employment and earnings, facilitate retraining, stabilize housing, and reduce the instance of substance abuse. To provide rigorous evidence on the impact of these programs, this study will conduct a random assignment evaluation in which all prisoners interested in receiving services from six selected Second Chance grantees will be randomly assigned either to the program group or the control group. By using random assignment, the evaluation will create two equivalent groups, and the outcomes for these two groups can be compared to provide an unbiased estimate of the impact of the Second Chance program.
As a subcontractor to Social Policy Research Associates (SPRA), NORC leads the task to collect follow-up interview data on program participants and controls beginning one year from treatment start. NORC will assist with instrument development and will supervise a team to locate, contact, and interview this hard-to-reach population. Data collection will primarily be completed by phone, but will also include field locating.