Evaluation of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative
NIJ funded a multiyear, multisite evaluation of programs funded under a collaborative federal effort — the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI). The goal of the initiative, which started in 2003, was to improve reentry outcomes along five dimensions: criminal justice, employment, education, health and housing.
The purposes of the evaluation, initiated in 2004, were to determine the extent to which participation in SVORI programs improved access to reentry services and programs and resulted in improved outcomes in the areas of housing, education, employment and criminal behavior. [1]
On this page find:
- Findings on Access to Reentry Services and Programs
- Post-Release Outcomes
- Challenges for Returning Offenders
- What Works for Whom? Ongoing Follow-Up Research
- Detailed Reports and Datasets From the SVORI Evaluation
Findings on Access to Reentry Services and Programs
Participation in SVORI programming increased access to reentry services and programs. For example, SVORI program participants were significantly more likely to have reentry plans upon release. The provision of such services, however, significantly decreased after release. This finding was supported by self-report survey data collected from program participants and directors.
Post-Release Outcomes
Results also showed that, compared to non-SVORI participants, SVORI participants showed no discernible differences on outcomes with respect to recidivism, housing, substance abuse, and physical and mental health.
Challenges for Returning Offenders
Offenders face important challenges upon returning to their communities. These challenges include finding suitable housing and employment and obtaining affordable health care (including substance abuse treatment and mental health counseling). Results from the SVORI evaluation support the notion that successful reentry of returning offenders cannot be tied to one process (such as, in this example, the provision of services).
For a more detailed overview of findings from the SVORI evaluation, see The Multi-site Evaluation of SVORI: Summary and Synthesis (pdf, 176 pages).
What Works for Whom? Ongoing Follow-up Research
NIJ awarded additional funding ($401,670 under award number 2009-IJ-CX-0010 to Research Triangle Institute) to identify those programs and services funded under SVORI that improved reentry outcomes among released prisoners. Of particular importance are the questions of "What works?" and "For whom?"
Data collected for the multisite evaluation were used to examine these questions and showed that many of the specific services had no effect on housing, employment, substance use or recidivism outcomes and in some cases the effect was actually deleterious rather than beneficial. However, there were significant effects of SVORI program participation on arrests following release. SVORI program participation was associated with a 14% reduction in arrests for the adult men, 48% reduction for the adult females, and 25% reduction for the juvenile males over the fixed follow-up periods.
Read the full report Prisoner Reentry Services: What Worked for SVORI Evaluation Participants?" (pdf, 560 pages).
Detailed Reports and Dataset From the SVORI Evaluation
The multisite SVORI evaluation produced numerous reports that provide in-depth information on different aspects and findings of the evaluation. Information about specific topics can be found in these reports:
- "Prisoner Reentry Services: What Worked for SVORI Evaluation Participants?" (pdf, 560 pages) — This report presents results of a secondary analysis of SVORI data. The original data were augmented with updates from administrative records for arrests and incarcerations and used to examine the questions of “what works, for whom, and for how long?” in prisoner reentry programs.
- "Prisoner Reentry Experiences of Adult Males: Characteristics, Service Receipt, and Outcomes of Participants in the SVORI Multi-site Evaluation" (pdf, 205 pages) — This report presents information on the characteristics, service receipt and outcomes of adult males who participated in the SVORI evaluation.
- "Prisoner Reentry Experiences of Adult Females: Characteristics, Service Receipt, and Outcomes of Participants in the SVORI Multi-site Evaluation" (pdf, 180 pages) — This report presents information on the characteristics, service receipt and outcomes of adult females who participated in the evaluation.
- "Reentry Experiences of Confined Juvenile Offenders: Characteristics, Service Receipt, and Outcomes of Juvenile Male Participants in the SVORI Multi-site Evaluation" (pdf, 174 pages) — This report presents information on the characteristics, service receipt and outcomes of juvenile males who participated in the evaluation.
- "An Economic Evaluation of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative" (pdf, 89 pages) Exit Notice —This report provides a detailed analysis of costs of programming before release and a cost-benefit analysis that reviews costs and benefits both before and after release for five programs.
- "The Multi-site Evaluation of SVORI: Methodology and Analytic Approach" (pdf, 447 pages) — This companion report to the reports above documents the methods and analytic approaches for the SVORI multisite evaluation. It is a companion to the reports above.
- "National Portrait of SVORI" (pdf, 246 pages) Exit Notice — This report presents the preliminary assessment of all 69 sites funded under the SVORI multisite evaluation.
NIJ has released data from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) Multi-site Impact Evaluation. Learn more and apply for access to the data Exit Notice.
Note
[1] In 2004, NIJ awarded $10,127,061 to Research Triangle Institute International (RTI) to conduct an evaluation of SVORI across the 69 grantee sites. RTI partnered, through a subcontract, with the Urban Institute. The final reports from the evaluation were released in December 2009. See the final reports from the evaluation.
