WestEd was recently awarded a contract by the Minnesota Department of Corrections to evaluate its Second Chance Act Statewide Recidivism Implementation Program.

The state’s Second Chance Act provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of incarcerated adults and juveniles who are released from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities and returning to communities.

The program resulting from this Act is designed to help communities throughout Minnesota develop and implement comprehensive and collaborative strategies that address the challenges posed by offender reentry and recidivism reduction.

The Second Chance Act Program integrates evidence-based practices and innovative approaches into the state’s offender reentry efforts with the overall goal of reducing recidivism and enhancing public safety.

The Justice & Prevention Research Center at WestEd will conduct an external evaluation to document how the program is implemented and whether there are measurable impacts on recidivism and other outcomes.

“WestEd is looking forward to being the evaluation partner with the Minnesota Department of Corrections to help them with their efforts to reduce recidivism among released prisoners,” says Co-Project Director Sarah Guckenburg. “Our goal for the evaluation is to give continuous feedback to inform program improvement and develop an appropriate method to look at outcomes of this important program.”

The one-year evaluation will include both a formative and summative evaluation. The formative evaluation will focus on measuring the implementation of new training, policies, and strategies put in place in Minnesota. The summative evaluation will look at baseline and outcome data for individuals impacted by the Second Chance Act Program. Data from different state agencies will be collected and analyzed.

In addition to Guckenburg, Anthony Petrosino is leading this evaluation study, working with their JPRC colleagues Cecelia Dodge and Hannah Sutherland.