With 750,000 people released from prisons each year, there is a pressing need for rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of reentry strategies. Returning citizens face a range of challenges to successful reentry into the community, including low levels of employment and substance use problems, all of which impact recidivism rates. Although the issue of reentry among individuals formerly incarcerated has attracted substantial attention and funding in recent years, very little is known about the components of effective reentry programs. It is unknown what in-prison activities are best able to prepare individuals for the return to the community, what works best to stabilize people after they are released, and what long-term efforts are needed to help people become productive citizens. One avenue for affecting outcomes may be through parole, but little is known about what parole practices are most effective for whom and how additional services aimed at improving returning citizens’ cognitive and behavioral functioning can complement the work of parole officers.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance, in a collaborative effort with the National Institute of Corrections and the National Institute of Justice, is implementing an innovative parole-based intervention with a well-known cognitive behavioral therapy program as part of a Demonstration Field Experiment on reentry of the formerly incarcerated, known as Changing Attitudes and Motivation in Parolees (CHAMPS).

The National Institute of Justice selected MDRC and its partner, George Mason University, to conduct a multisite random assignment study to test this reentry model intended to: (1) improve individuals’ motivation to change; (2) address cognitive and behavioral functioning regarding crime-prone thoughts and behaviors; and (3) address core factors that affect individuals’ performance while under community supervision following release from prison.