The Evaluation of the Re-Integration of Ex-Offenders (RExO) Program: Two-Year Impact Report The Reintegration of Ex-Offenders (RExO) project began in 2005 as a joint initiative of the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), the Department of Justice, and several other federal agencies. The programs funded under RExO primarily provide three main types of services to ex-offenders: mentoring, which most often took the form of group mentoring, but also included one-on-one mentoring and other activities; employment services, including work readiness training, job training, job placement, job clubs, transitional employment, and post-placement follow-up; and case management and supportive services.

In 2009, ETA commissioned a three-year random assignment evaluation of the RExO project. This report summarizes the initial impacts of the RExO program on offender outcomes in four areas: service receipt, labor market success, recidivism, and other outcomes. The results are based on outcomes for these individuals in the two-year period after they enrolled into the study. Two sources of data provided outcome information for this analysis: a telephone survey that asked about a range of items, including service receipt, labor market outcomes, recidivism, health and mental health, substance abuse, housing, and child support issues and administrative data that provided state and local criminal engagement information.

A final impact report is scheduled to be submitted in fall 2015, and will focus on impacts in the three-year period following random assignment (RA) into the study. The final report will include data similar to those reported in this report, but will add data for a third year following RA. Additionally, the final report will include administrative data on employment and earnings, which will allow for an analysis of the extent to which recall or other response bias in the survey results may have affected the estimates of impact on labor market outcomes. If the administrative data analysis provides results consistent with the analysis of survey data, the joint finding will provide solid evidence that RExO positively impacts participants’ labor market outcomes. Further, despite the lack of impacts on recidivism described in this report, the final report will examine whether differences in recidivism emerge in the third year after RA.

Key Words: Reintegration of ex-offenders, RExO, ex-offenders, formerly incarcerated individuals, employment of ex-offenders, employment services for ex-offenders, mentoring for ex-offenders, employment outcomes for ex-offenders, random assignment evaluation of services for ex-offenders.