The number of people incarcerated in the U.S. has quadrupled since the 1970s. The more than 600,000 people who are released from prison each year face a range of obstacles to successful reentry into the community. Perhaps not surprisingly, outcomes are often poor: Two-thirds of those who are released from prison are rearrested and half are reincarcerated within three years. States and localities are searching for programmatic approaches to improve reentry outcomes, but there is limited evidence about which strategies work best.

Many believe that it is most critical to address the employment needs of individuals with previous incarceration in the period immediately following their release. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Reintegration of Ex-Offenders (RExO) Random Assignment Evaluation sought to provide highly reliable evidence about the effectiveness of a group of employment-oriented programs for returning citizens that have received funding from DOL. The Department of Labor selected a team led by Social Policy Research Associates (SPRA) to evaluate this important initiative. MDRC and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago were subcontractors to SPRA.