Outcome Evaluation of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' Community Orientation & Reintegration Program: Executive Summary

• NCJ Number: 223633
• Author(s): Linda G. Smith Ph.D.; Denise R. Suttle M.A.
• Date Published: 2008
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2001/2002-DS/DS-19/19-13099
• Sponsoring Agency: Pennsylvania Cmssn on Crime and Delinquency
• Sale Source: Pennsylvania Cmssn on Crime and Delinquency
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded July 12, 2008; see NCJ-223632 for Final Report.

Annotation

A summary of findings and recommendations are presented from an evaluative study of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' reentry program, Community Orientation and Reintegration (COR), which worked in facilitating the successful reentry of offenders being released from prison back into the community.

Abstract

The results show failures for the Community Orientation and Reintegration (COR) program completers compared to the control group for almost every recidivism, employment, and substance abuse measure used in the outcome evaluation. It was recommended that the COR program as it is currently designed be eliminated and a complete redesign of how the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) would put reentry into practice in the future be initiated. However, the new reentry program should adopt the same goals that COR had which included reducing recidivism, increasing employment opportunities, and decreasing substance abuse for offenders being released from prison without compromising public safety. This report presents a summary of findings from an evaluative project supported by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency on the DOC's Community Orientation and Reintegration program; a reentry program addressing issues of prison overcrowding and increased costs of incarceration. The program, implemented in 2001 would act as a "refresher" course designed to draw on the knowledge and skills that the inmates received from participating in other programs offered in the prison system.