NCJ Number
171399
Journal
Corrections Management Quarterly Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1997) Pages: 32-43
Date Published
1997
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article examines the effects on inmates of prison training programs.
Abstract
The article includes data on more than 7,000 offenders who had industrial work experience and vocational and apprenticeship training while in prison. The article evaluates the impact of the experience and training on the inmates' in-prison and post-release outcomes. Because inmates could not be randomly assigned to the training condition, selection bias was controlled for by a statistical matching procedure that modeled the training program selection process. The results demonstrate significant and substantive training effects on both in-prison and post-prison outcome measures. Despite the stigma of imprisonment and the lowered expectations of an ex-offender, it appears that prison programs can have an effect on post-release employment and post-release arrest in the short run and recommitment in the long run. Failure to find these effects in the past may have been due to the ineffectiveness of the programs evaluated or to an inadequate research design. Tables, references