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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:42 am
Time: 11:42 am
Results for prisoner reentry, females
1 results foundAuthor: Lindquist, Christine H. Title: Prisoner Reentry Experiences of Adult Females: Characteristics, Service Receipt, and Outcomes of Participants in the SVORI Multi-Site Evaluation Summary: The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) funded agencies in 2003 to develop programs to improve criminal justice, employment, education, health, and housing outcomes for released prisoners. Sixty-nine agencies received federal funds to develop 89 programs. The SVORI Multi-site Evaluation was funded by the National Institute of Justice to examine the extent to which the SVORI (1) improved access to appropriate, comprehensive, integrated services; (2) improved employment, health, and personal functioning; and (3) reduced criminal recidivism. Sixteen programs—12 adult and 4 juvenile—were included in an impact evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the programming provided under SVORI. This report presents findings from the pre-release and postrelease interviews conducted with women in 11 impact sites. The sample includes 153 females enrolled in SVORI programs and 204 comparison females who did not receive SVORI programming. The respondent profile revealed a high-risk, high-need study group. The women reported many physical and mental health problems, with half reporting receiving treatment for mental health problems before the current period of incarceration. Whereas more than half of the women reported working during the six months before prison, nearly as many reported receiving income from illegal activities. The women reported an average of 11 arrests, with the first occurring at 19 years of age, and nearly all reported at least one previous incarceration. The women reported very high levels of current service need; among the most commonly reported were education, public health insurance, financial assistance, employment, and mentoring. The focus of the evaluation was to assess whether SVORI respondents received more services than non-SVORI respondents and to examine differences between the groups on a variety of post-release outcomes. Propensity score weights were developed, tested, and applied to improve the comparability of the SVORI and non-SVORI groups. Weighted analyses were used to examine the treatment effect of SVORI. In terms of service receipt, SVORI and non-SVORI respondents reported the highest levels of service receipt during confinement. Whereas both groups reported low levels of postrelease service receipt, SVORI respondents generally reported higher levels of service receipt than non-SVORI respondents. However, the levels of post-release service receipt reported by both groups were considerably lower than their reported levels of service need. SVORI programming appeared to have a positive impact on both employment outcomes and abstinence from drug use. The findings for criminal behavior were mixed; the women enrolled in SVORI had positive outcomes for self-reported criminal behavior and official measures for rearrest but had negative outcomes for self-reported compliance with conditions of supervision and official measures of reincarceration. SVORI programming did not appear to affect core housing outcomes, familial or peer relationships, or physical or mental health outcomes. Study findings clearly demonstrate that female prisoners returning to society are a population with high needs. While the SVORI programs were successful in increasing services provided to female participants, the levels of services that female SVORI participants received failed to match their high levels of need. However, the findings support the notion that enhanced access to a variety of reentry services results in modest improvements among several key reentry domains for women. The current evaluation’s detailed documentation of service areas for which women reported high needs can be used for effective planning and service delivery. Because of the variety of challenges that returning women prisoners face, particularly with respect to mental and physical health problems, extensive family responsibilities, and lack of employment experience (compared with reentering male prisoners), effective coordination of services is necessary. Details: Report tao the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2009. 180p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 11, 2012 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/230420.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/230420.pdf Shelf Number: 124936 Keywords: Female OffendersPrisoner Reentry, FemalesPrisoner Rehabilitation |