One form of rehabilitation is education. Although 40% of inmates said they would enroll in a postsecondary degree program if given an opportunity, but only 27% of state prisons even offer college-level courses (McCoy & Burlingame, 2019; Rampey et al., 2016). Research has shown that completing a college-level degree while incarcerated can…

There are currently an estimated 1.1 million juveniles involved with the juvenile justice system. Of that steadily-climbing number, a high percentage will be rearrested, readjudicated, or recommitted to a facility, program, or group home. Although many researchers have studied the factors influencing juvenile criminology and recidivism rates in…

The United States, with just 5% of the world's population, imprisons almost 25% of the world's incarcerated people. Furthermore, the vast majority of people released from prison will recidivate. Research has shown that earning a college degree while incarcerated significantly reduces recidivism rates. This study considered the opinions of adults…

With the recent approval of the Second Chance Pell Program and a proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, a shift is occurring in favor of expanding educational opportunities to incarcerated adults. As reform to the criminal justice system becomes a focus, there is an immediate need to study the dynamic relationship between community…

This study sought to determine whether criminal thinking possessed by offenders in prison would be significantly reduced through the implementation of motivational curriculum amid a broader menu of treatment and educational programming. This study utilized the Criminal Thinking Scale (CTS) as a pretest and posttest measure of criminal thinking…

Legislators and correctional administrators are tasked with problem-solving current issues of mass incarceration and high criminal recidivism rates. Part of the solution is to implement successful rehabilitative initiatives through reentry programming. While Postsecondary Correctional Education programs are proven to reduce recidivism and assist…

This article presents the findings of a 2-year-long quasi-experimental study of post-release engagement and recidivism for youth with disabilities. The effects of specialized Reentry Intervention and Support for Engagement (RISE) for youth with disabilities were compared with two other groups: (a) youth with disabilities who received traditional…

Juvenile delinquency intervention and treatment programs have the broad goals of preventing crime and reducing recidivism by providing treatment and services to youth who have committed crimes. The following five statements are presented in this report and based on practices and programs rated by CrimeSolutions: (1) Juvenile awareness programs may…

Background: Data from sex offender treatment programmes (SOTP) on the re-offending of convicted sex offenders from the prison service in England and Wales was recently reviewed and found to be associated with no change in sexual reoffending. While this result is at variance with a number of other reviews it does give rise to concern as most…

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and as many as a third of Americans have some type of criminal record. Upon reentry, individuals with a justice history, whom referred as returning citizens, face significant barriers to economic security and reintegration into their communities. Among the most formidable barriers…

The post-secondary correctional education program (PSCEP) is perceived to be beneficial to ex-offenders, but stakeholder needs assessment findings show an increasing lack of ex-offenders' participation in the PSCEP. This study suggests that when stakeholders work collaboratively to persuade the ex-offenders of the usefulness of participating in…

Each year, more than 700,000 incarcerated individuals leave federal and state prisons and return to local communities where they will have to compete with individuals in those communities for jobs. In today's economy, having a college education is necessary to compete for many jobs, and the stakes for ex-offenders are higher than they are for…

According to the United States Department of Justice (2017), over 10,000 formerly incarcerated individuals are released each week from federal and state prisons. Approximately two-thirds of this population will be re-arrested within three years of release. Although employment has been found to reduce recidivism, the majority of formerly…

Purpose: Responding to social work's grand challenge of smart decarceration, this study investigated whether Family Centered Treatment (FCT), a home-based service for juvenile court-involved youth, is more effective than group care (GC) in reducing recidivism. Outcomes are juvenile readjudication and commitment to placement, and adult conviction…

For over two decades, there has been a progressive emergence of Shakespeare-focussed, performance-based programmes intended for use as criminal rehabilitation in the USA. Prison based criminal retribution, though historically prevalent, remains controversial. Although it is still used as a common method for rehabilitation, evidence demonstrates…