Improving Access to Services for Female Offenders Returning to the Community by Marie Garcia with Nancy Ritter
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Improving Access to Services for Female Offenders Returning to the Community by Marie Garcia with Nancy Ritter An evaluation of re-entry services for female offenders shows that increasing access can lead to modest improvements in key areas. n a single decade — 1999 to 2009 Violent Offender Reentry Initiative — the number of adult women (SVORI) showed that adult females I incarcerated in U.S. prisons grew reported a significantly higher need by 25 percent. Adult women now for services than men. This finding make up about 7 percent of the total highlights a thread running through inmate population, and they face the re-entry literature that suggests many challenges upon release from a disconnect between the services prison. For example, women experi- individuals need to facilitate a suc- ence barriers to obtaining housing, cessful re-entry into their community greater difficulty in obtaining and and the services they receive. sustaining employment, less family support, and more substance abuse Through SVORI, funding was pro- than men.1 The programming offered vided to state and local jurisdictions to women while incarcerated, how- to develop re-entry strategies for ever, is usually modeled after the offenders returning to their communi- programs for male prisoners. ties. (See sidebar, “The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative: As a group, women are often The Basics.”) NIJ funded a multi- overlooked with regard to re-entry year, multisite evaluation of SVORI programming, and results from the to examine the effect its programs recent evaluation of the Serious and had on access to re-entry services 18 NIJ JOURNAL / ISSUE NO. 269 n MARCH 2012 and programs and on housing, as usual” from their institutions 2. Health care services (including education, employment and criminal (“non-SVORI women”). SVORI substance abuse and mental behavior. This evaluation, one of the programming varied by the services health) largest NIJ-funded evaluations to provided and the approach each insti- 3. Employment, education and life- date, included a sample of 357 adult tution took to implementation.3 skills services females in 11 states who were return- ing to their communities.2 These The SVORI and non-SVORI women 4. Intimate partner violence-related women are the focus of this article. were interviewed at four intervals: services at 30 days pre-release and at three, 5. Child-related services Forty-three percent of the adult nine and 15 months post-release. female sample (153 women) were Women in both groups indicated that included in the experimental group When measuring need, research- their needs were highest in the third and received services funded by ers “bundled” services into five category, employment, education SVORI (“SVORI women”); 57 categories: and life skills (79 percent), and the percent of the sample (204 women) 1. Services to help with the transition first category, transition services did not receive SVORI services from prison to the community (73 percent). and instead received “treatment The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative: The Basics VORI was an unprecedented considerably in approach, services housing, relationships, sub- Snational response to the provided and target populations. stance abuse, physical and challenges of prisoner re-entry.1 NIJ funded RTI International and mental health, and recidivism. Funded by the U.S. Departments the Urban Institute to evaluate the of Justice, Labor, Education, The multi-year, multisite evalua- impact of SVORI. The evaluation tion included an implementation Housing and Urban Development, assessed: and Health and Human Services, assessment, impact evaluation SVORI provided $100 million in n Whether SVORI programs, and economic analysis. The final funding to improve the criminal compared with “treatment as report was published in 2009 justice, employment, education, usual,” increased prisoners’ in six volumes, all of which are health and housing outcomes for access to pre-release services. available at the National Criminal people returning to the commu- Justice Reference Service web- n Whether SVORI participants site, http://www.ncjrs.gov. nity after prison. continued to receive more services Beginning in 2003, 69 agencies than non-SVORI participants upon In fiscal year 2010, NIJ awarded in the U.S. received $500,000-$2 release. $401,670 to RTI to reexamine data million over a three-year period. collected in the original SVORI n Whether SVORI participants evaluation and supplemental data. There was little federal guidance experienced better outcomes than for the development of re-entry The project will attempt to deter- non-SVORI participants on mea- mine what worked and for whom. programs, although the agen- sures of employment, education, cies had to offer a three-phase Findings are expected in 2012. continuum of services beginning during incarceration, intensifying just before release and during the Note first few months post-release, 1. Lattimore, Pamela K., and Christy A. Visher, “The Multi-site Evaluation of and continuing for several years. SVORI: Summary and Synthesis,” Final report to the National Institute of Therefore, the 89 programs Justice, grant number 2004-RE-CX-0002, April 2010, NCJ 230421, available at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/230421.pdf. developed under SVORI varied Improving Access to Services for Female Offenders Returning to the Community | 19 NIJ JOURNAL / ISSUE NO. 269 n MARCH 2012 During the pre-release interviews, professional treatment for a drug the women reported that their great- Because of their high or alcohol problem at some point in est employment, education and their lives. On average, the women life-skills needs were education level of need, female reported they had been in a treat- (95 percent), employment (83 per- ment program three times. At the cent) and job training (83 percent). offenders are likely to time of their pre-release interview, Their reported greatest transition 65 percent of the women reported service needs were public health encounter tremendous needing substance abuse treatment. insurance (91 percent), financial assistance (87 percent), a mentor obstacles when they The SVORI women received a (83 percent) and obtaining a driver’s higher level of treatment services for license (79 percent). re-enter the community. substance abuse than non-SVORI women. At three and 15 months Because of their high level of need, post-release, the SVORI women female offenders are likely to encoun- were significantly less likely to have ter tremendous obstacles when Employment used drugs during the post-release they re-enter the community after At 15 months post-release, SVORI period and during the 30 days prior serving time in prison. “The women women were more likely than non- to assessment than the non-SVORI in the SVORI study had numerous SVORI women to report they were women. This finding suggests that physical and mental health problems, supporting themselves with a job, consistent monitoring of drug use is extensive substance abuse histories, receiving formal pay, and experienc- an important tool to provide during significant criminal histories, seri- ing stable employment. post-release services because hold- ous exposure to drug or criminally ing women accountable may help involved family members and peers, The researchers believe the impact them keep clean longer. and substantial housing challenges,” of SVORI services on employ- said Pamela K. Lattimore, a nationally ment outcomes was not surprising It is important to note, however, recognized expert on prison re-entry because employment was the most that in both groups, substance use and one of the principal investigators common programmatic focus among increased the longer the women for NIJ’s SVORI evaluation. all the SVORI programs. What was were out of prison. somewhat surprising was that, for Lattimore, a principal scientist with many dimensions of employment, “These findings are particularly RTI International, worked with these differences were not statisti- important because of the extensive co-principal investigator Christy A. cally significant until 15 months substance abuse histories reported Visher, professor at the University post-release. by the women,” Lattimore said. “For of Delaware and former principal all of the women we studied — the research associate with the Justice “This pattern may have emerged SVORI participants and those in the Policy Center at the Urban Institute, because, although employment control group — abstinence from on the evaluation. outcomes steadily increased for the substance use became increasingly SVORI group, it dropped off for the more difficult throughout the post- non-SVORI group at the 15-month release follow-up period.” Outcomes for SVORI Women post-release point,” Lattimore said. and Non-SVORI Women “Overall, we believe that the SVORI Although the SVORI programs Findings regarding the impact of programs were effective in improv- positively influenced women’s the additional SVORI services on ing employment outcomes for the employment and substance use women’s outcomes were mixed. The women.” outcomes, women who received SVORI women showed significant SVORI services did not do better improvement in the areas of employ- Substance Use than their non-SVORI counterparts ment and substance use compared Approximately two-thirds of the in the areas of: with non-SVORI women. There were women in the SVORI study had used no significant differences, however, illicit drugs during the 30 days before n Housing (which gradually