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To help individuals successfully reenter society after time in jail, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $10 million in grants to 20 local workforce development boards (LWDBs) in June 2015 for the Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release (LEAP) initiative. Central to the LEAP initiative was creating jail-based American Job Centers (AJCs) with direct linkages to community-based AJCs. A complex array of factors including jail and local community characteristics influenced the development and operations of jail-based AJCs as well as the experiences and outcomes of participants. The overarching goals were to increase participants’ work readiness at the time of release, increase employment after release, and reduce recidivism; additional goals for the pilot initiative included demonstrating that corrections and workforce agencies could effectively collaborate to provide pre-release services, generate lessons learned around promising strategies and common challenges that could inform future efforts; and identify ways for grantees to sustain the jail-based AJCs when the DOL-funded grant ended. The grants covered 9 months of planning and 15 months of service delivery, with many grantees receiving up to a one-year no-cost extension to finish spending down remaining grant resources. Grantees were geographically diverse, located in 13 states across 5 DOL regions, and involved a total of 22 county jails.

Key Takeaways

• The LEAP initiative demonstrated the feasibility of offering AJC services in a jail setting.
• Close collaboration between the workforce agencies and the jails was crucial for successful implementation.
• The jail environment—including the jail layout, security level, and the degree to which jail staff were focused on reentry—shaped the physical spaces for services, and schedules of jail-based AJCs.
• LEAP sites enrolled 3,805 individuals as of March 2018.
• Sites highlighted the need to remain flexible to adapt to changing jail conditions.
• Pre-release participants appreciated being treated like AJC customers.
• Grantee performance reports indicated that most participants remained engaged while in the jail and were work ready at the time of release.
• Despite connecting pre-release with participants, sites struggled to engage participants after release
• In most sites, grantees required partnerships with more specialized service providers to deal with the significant challenges facing the reentry population.
• Nearly 40 percent of participants found unsubsidized employment or participated in post-secondary education, occupational skills training, or Registered Apprenticeship in their first quarter after release.
• Of participants who had reached one year after release, 20 percent were rearrested for a new crime or were reincarcerated because their parole or probation was revoked.

Research Gaps

• Key research questions of interest could include: Does linking participants to post-release services improve employment and recidivism outcomes? What is the right package of services to provide pre-release? Do sites need to provide career services, CBT, and supportive services? What is the impact of each type of service on interim outcomes such a work readiness, misconduct while in jail, and reengagement after release as well as longer-term outcomes such as post-release employment, retention, and recidivism? (page 94)

Citation

Bellotti, J., Sattar, S., Gould-Werth, A., Berk, J., Gutierrez, I., Stein, J., Betesh, H., Ochoa, L., Wiegand, A. (2018). Mathematica. Developing American Job Centers in Jails: Implementation of the Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release (LEAP) Grants. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.