CEO Report

Anyone interested in the issue of reentry and how transitional employment opporutnities may reduce recidivism and save money should read the hot-off-the-press report, "More than a Job, Evalution of the Center for Employment Opportunities". It is a randomized examination over a three year period of a reentry program designed to help prisoners navigate the turbulent market realities for an individual with a criminal record, reintegrate in society by helping them develop the soft skills required for sustained employment and linking them to a job during a critical period.

In my mind, the strongest implications of the report are that it suggests more resources devoted to those most in neeed of transitional planning early on is a cost-effective approach to preventing recidivism. The results provides evidence for the existence of a critical window where a fork in the road quickly forms, one path towards employment and adaptation and the other in the direction of crime, arrest, and reincarceration. Programs like CEO, like a GPS unit for the confused navigator in a foreign city, are probably an intergral intervention that provides the psychological and material guidance requisite to arriving at the desirable, rewarding, and self gratifying destination. See the executive summary for a quick glimpse of the findings.

DHC