An Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of Prison Work Release Programs On Post Release Recidivism And Employment PDF Download

Employment is a critical component during reentry and provides recently released offenders with legitimate income while establishing a foothold in the community. Correctional departments facilitate vocational education and training, allowing offenders to learn technical and soft skills. Coined as offender employment programs (OEPs), this meta-analysis provides additional insight regarding their effectiveness by observing post-release employment and recidivism outcomes. The study identifies OEPs impact on offender participants and provides an explanation as to why the effect on post-release employment and recidivism outcomes are small. While utilizing a random effect model, effect sizes for 46 independent OEP outcome measures from 10 publications are partitioned into subcategories to identify relationships among OEPs, employment, and recidivism after offenders are released from prison. Although OEP related studies often report statistically significant results in favor of participants (treatment groups), the present study illustrates a more detailed picture about OEP effectiveness when measuring rearrests, reconvictions, reincarcerations, and obtaining employment. Findings in the research are analogous to previously published OEP meta-analyses. Small effect sizes were found throughout all employment and recidivism categories. Statistical tests also displayed a small effect size when combining all independent outcome measures. Lastly, some recidivism categories produced inconclusive results, implying a small impact on specific recidivism categories such as rearrest and reconviction. Furthermore, the results suggest that the correlation between post-release employment and recidivism is greatly influenced by external factors such as criminogenic behavior and economic conditions. Correctional policies and research implications are revisited towards the end of the study to determine what is required to increase OEP effectiveness and improve post-release outcomes.