Design, Sites, and Data Sources
MDRC is evaluating multiple programs within LA County JCOD’s system of reentry services for people involved in the criminal legal system or for those at risk of becoming involved in the future. Each evaluation uses a different combination of research methods that best aligns with each program’s design, state of implementation, and data availability. These methods include process studies to understand service coordination and service delivery, outcome and impact studies to identify the effects of reentry services on client outcomes, and cost studies to describe the financial costs and cost-effectiveness of reentry services and related funding streams.
Quantitative Methods
Administrative data used in the quantitative analyses come from the following sources:
- Management Information Systems for data on program referrals and participant needs and service receipt
- County Probation, Sheriff’s, and Superior Court Departments for data on arrests, charges, convictions, probation violations, and incarcerations
- County Department of Mental Health for data on behavioral and mental health services
- County Department of Economic Opportunity and California State Employment Development Department for data on employment and earnings
- County Department of Public Health’s Substance Abuse Prevention and Control for data on substance use treatment services
- Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s Homeless Management Information System for data on housing services
- County Department of Health Services for data on physical health care utilization
Information about who enrolled but did not participate (a consideration for forming a comparison group) and data availability informed the research designs for each evaluation. When possible, quasi-experimental impact analyses were conducted using such methods as instrumental variables and propensity score matching.
Qualitative Methods
To gather information about how each program operated across the network of grantee providers, MDRC used a combination the following approaches:
- Semi-structured interviews with staff members and administrators of service providers
- Observations of program operations
- Interviews or focus groups with program participants
- Review of written program materials
- Survey of program staff
