NCJ Number
121802
Date Published
1980
Length
871 pages
Annotation
This is the report on phase I of the evaluation of the Cheyenne River Swift Bird Project, an Indian-run, prerelease corrections facility that serves as an alternative method of incarceration for Indian inmates from a five-State Northern Great Plains area (Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota).
Abstract
The intent of the program is to increase participants' awareness of their Indian tradition and history so their cultural values may give a new positive meaning to their lives. The evaluation methodology involves the establishment of a control group (Indian offenders released from the Bureau of Prisons and the five State correctional systems) and a test group (Indian offenders released through the Swift Bird Project). Released offenders will be tracked by probation or parole officers to determine recidivism. The performance of the control group will be compared to that of the test group. The first phase of the four-phase evaluation was conducted during the first year of the 4 1/2-year evaluation. The major effort of phase I was to establish a baseline recidivism analysis of comparable Indian offenders released prior to the opening of Swift Bird. Data are provided for each of the five States and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Data from an internal evaluation and a community attitude survey are also presented. 18 tables, 8 exhibits.