NCJ Number
91909
Date Published
1973
Length
152 pages
Annotation
The Oklahoma City Community Treatment Center (CTC) (Oklahoma), a prerelease center, has provided beneficial effects for residents (as measured by recidivism rates) and favorable community acceptance (as measured by employer attitudes).
Abstract
The CTC, which opened on October 1, 1970, and is now at full capacity, houses 52 residents and 10 trusties who perform maintenance duties. The CTC programs include individual and group counseling and a broad range of efforts to assist residents with the personal, financial, and employment problems they may encounter. The major program at the CTC is work release. The program evaluation focused on persons served by the program for October 1, 1970, to August 30, 1972. A balance of 200 residents were either discharged or paroled to the community during this time. From October 1, 1970, to January 1, 1973, only 25 former residents returned to Oklahoma institutions, yielding a recidivism rate of 12.50 percent. Similar studies throughout the Nation have shown a recidivism rate ranging from 8 to 26 percent. The study was careful to match CTC residents with other offenders not participating in the program. The discharges could not be matched because of the absence of information. The ex-resident parolees were matched with other parolees in age, sex, race, type of offense, and length of time on parole. Findings indicated that relatively older offenders tended to show a higher success rate, while the residents who failed tended to be younger, were often not married, had fewer children, often had drinking and drug problems, held unskilled jobs, were not committed to their readjustment, and demonstrated a chronic pattern of maladjustment in school and other situations. Of the 56 employers involved in the work release program, half were interviewed. The majority were satisfied with the performance of the residents, with 36 percent rating the residents as better than average workers. Evaluation instruments and data are appended, and 34 bibliographic listings are provided.