Summary of Findings from the Reentry Project Grants Evaluation Impact Brief

< Back to Search Results
Release Date: December 20, 2024

Summary of Findings from the Reentry Project Grants Evaluation Impact Brief

deliverable icon

Related Tags

Topic

Re-Entry ,  Data, Methods, and Tools ,  Employment and Training

Research Methods

Study Population

DOL Partner Agency

U.S. Regions

About the Brief

Download Brief

The impact study estimated the impacts Reentry Project (RP) program participation had on employment, earnings, and criminal justice system involvement. It did so by comparing the outcomes of RP program participants to a comparison group of people with prior criminal justice involvement who received light-touch employment services from the Wagner-Peyser program. Outcomes were measured between 2020 and 2023, a time heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it difficult for many grantees to reach their enrollment goals and may have affected the outcomes of RP participants as well as the comparison group. The brief summarizes the findings of the study.

Download this Summary (PDF)

Research Questions

  1. What is the impact of RP on the likelihood of being convicted of a crime over the 10 quarters after enrollment compared with Wagner-Peyser employment services?
  2. What is the impact of RP on the likelihood of being employed in the 9th and 10th quarters after enrollment compared with Wagner-Peyser employment services?
  3. What is the impact of RP on participants’ earnings in the 9th and 10th quarters after enrollment compared with Wagner-Peyser employment services?

Key Takeaways

  • Grantees struggled to enroll and retain participants, especially young adults, and to provide intensive services as intended. Many programs intended to offer work-based learning experiences, but few participants received those services: while 72 percent of participants received education or training services, and 43 percent received occupational skills training, only 2.3 percent received on-the-job training.
  • Compared to Wagner-Peyser participants with similar demographics and criminal justice backgrounds, Reentry Project participants were 5.1 percentage points more likely to have a new criminal conviction in the 10 quarters after program entry.
  • Reentry Projects participants were also 4.1 percentage points less likely to be employed than comparison group members in the 9th and 10th quarters after enrollment and earned $693 less on average during that period.
  • Estimated impacts differed based on the severity of individuals’ pre-program criminal justice involvement, with RP participants who had more serious prior justice involvement showing no statistically significant differences in outcomes compared to similar matched Wagner-Peyser participants. These patterns in impacts based on pre-program criminal justice involvement may reflect unobserved differences between RP participants and matched comparison group members in pre-program sentencing associated with recidivism.

Citation

Shiferaw, L., Geckeler, C., Deutsch, J., Fischer, B., Paprocki, A., Gutierrez, I., Folsom, L., Wiegand, A., Lewis, G., English, B. (2024). Mathematica. Summary of Findings from the Reentry Project Grants Evaluation. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

Download Brief   View Study Profile

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.