Montgomery County’s Re-Entry Program
On May 19, 2009, the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Civic Innovation released a report evaluating the Montgomery County Pre-Release Center (PRC), a Maryland based program which helps prisoners gain employment and learn to bridge the gap between prison and society.
With nearly three-quarters of a million inmates leaving state and federal prisons each year, prisoner reentry is high on the public agenda. Research documents the very poor employment prospects of released inmates and recidivism rates remain high.
The report examines the PRC’s use of small everyday incentives as simple as later curfews and phone rights as a means of facing these large challenges. The program uses six levels of rewards to encourage responsible behavior and continued employment. The program is extremely successful, nearly 90 percent of participants obtain jobs upon release from jail or prison, making it model for the rest of the nation.
Most importantly, the program shows that the “small stuff” is more successful in motivating real and lasting change among prisoners than previous broadly applied programs, demonstrating that criminal justice agencies can use these “nudges” to require inmates to develop their fitness for civil society – helping to end the cycle of recidivism and unemployment among ex-cons.
This report provides several lessons for national and local prisoner reentry efforts and is an important model for policy makers and leaders to consider as they build future programs in the effort to increase employment and shape behavior among former prisoners. To read the report visit http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_57.htm
Source: press release.
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