Results of Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative

In 2003, the National Institute of Justice, of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, commissioned the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI). 69 agencies in 14 states received a total of $100 million over three years to create 89 programs targeted at adult male and female, and male juvenile, offenders with serious and violent criminal backgrounds. Several other federal agencies collaborated in the funding of the program, including the Departments of Labor, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services. 


The architects of the program, understanding the obstacles to successful reentry faced by all former offenders, knew that persons with serious and violent criminal histories have the most difficult challenges during the prisoner reentry experience. The underlying logic of the initiative held that targeting this cohort of former offenders with supportive reentry programming, beginning before release from prison, and continuing for a specified period of time  after release (15 months), should produce measurable improvements in reentry outcomes--in housing, employment, substance abuse, and mental and overall health. Ultimately, too, SVORI programming should result in lower re-arrest and recidivism rates. 


The official evaluation of the initiative found SVORI's impact on those outcomes statistically insignificant, or inconclusive.


I commend the folks who conceived the initiative, and I commend the federal government for ponying up the funds to pay for it. Nonetheless, I'm quite dismayed that such a potentially useful endeavor produced such under-whelming results. 


As someone with a serious and violent criminal background, I'm particularly disappointed and fearful that the unimpressive and uninspiring results of the initiative will only lead to hardened attitudes against further efforts to address the particular difficulties of reentry for persons with serious and violent offenses in their past. 


After $100 million, and 89 programs in 14 states involving 69 agencies, the considerable brainpower behind the initiative couldn't do better?


As someone experiencing the reentry process, and as someone who helps other former offenders navigate the obstacles to their successful reentry, I must reiterate what many researchers have concluded. The single most effective thing to do in reducing recidivism--the single most important reentry outcome--is the facilitation of more employment and career opportunities for former offenders. 


To that end, I submit that $100 million dollars spent engaging and influencing the business community would prove a far more successful initiative.