Juvenile Justice Pay for Success Initiative
The Problem
Nationally, there is a shortage of follow-up services for individuals released from incarceration. Historically, 64 percent of high-risk young men leaving juvenile incarceration or probation end up re-incarcerated within five years of release, and only 35 percent of this population is employed one year after release.
The Basics
Location: Boston, Chelsea, and Springfield, MA
Policy areas: Recidivism, workforce development
Population served: 929 high-risk men aged 17-24 on probation or parole, or incarcerated or exiting the juvenile justice system
Service provider: Roca Inc.
Size of investment: $21.76 million (including $3.76 million in deferred fees)
Maximum payments possible: $27 million
Investors: Goldman Sachs Social Impact Fund ($9 million senior loan), The Kresge Foundation ($1.5 million junior loan), Living Cities ($1.5 million junior loan), the Laura and John Arnold Foundation ($3.7 million grant), New Profit ($2 million grant), The Boston Foundation ($300,000 grant)
Intermediary: Third Sector Capital Partners
Other partner: Harvard Kennedy School SIB Lab (technical assistance)
Evaluator: Sibalytics LLC, the Urban Institute
Validator: Public Consulting Group
Evaluation methodology: Randomized control trial
Outcome payor: Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Outcomes that yield payments: (1) Recidivism bed days avoided, (2) improved job readiness, (3) improved employment outcomes
Timeframe: 7 year service delivery term, repayment term, and evaluation period
Project start: October 2014
Photo via Shutterstock.
The Intervention
Intervention: Roca is a cognitive-restructuring and skills development intervention for high-risk young men, designed to address the cycle of early incarceration and recidivism. It is a 4-year model that includes four basic elements: outreach; stage-based programming focused on education, pre-vocational training, life skills, transitional employment, and unsubsidized employment; and transformational relationships between organizations and systems.
Evidence base behind the intervention: Based on administrative data, Roca reports that participants show positive short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term outcomes in recidivism and employment.
The effectiveness of this intervention for the target population had been evaluated, and the service provider had provided this intervention previously.