Impacts of Welfare-to-work Programs on Children (5min video)

Impacts of Welfare-to-Work Programs on Children
Drawing from some of MDRC’s most consequential recent research results, this five-minute video describes how different welfare reform strategies affect the well-being of children and adolescents.

Closing the Education Achievement Gap (7min video)

Presenting insights from an exploratory investigation of successful districtwide school reforms, this seven-minute video outlines how public school systems in four big cities reduced ethnic and racial disparities in academic achievement while raising student performance overall.

Effective Ways to Move Welfare Recipients into Work (7min video)

The most effective strategy for increasing welfare recipients’ employment and earnings is neither to help them find jobs first nor to encourage them to enroll in education and training programs first. Find out what works best in this seven-minute video presentation, which summarizes the findings from 16 years of rigorous research in sites across the country.

Career-Related Experiences in High School Can Help Students Earn More Later

Career Academies, a high school reform initiative, produced large, long-term increases in the earnings of young men. This short video summarizes the latest findings.

Supplementing the Earnings of Low-Wage Workers: The Impacts on Adults (8 min video)

Policies that supplement the earnings of welfare recipients and other low-wage workers increase work, raise incomes, reduce poverty, and improve the well-being of young children.

Promoting Work in Public Housing

The findings from a long-term study of Jobs-Plus — an employment program that substantially increased the earnings of people in some of the nation’s poorest urban public housing developments — are summarized in a short video by Jim Riccio, director of research for the study.

Making Progress Toward Graduation: Evidence from the Talent Development High School Project

MDRC’s study of Talent Development, a program meant to lower dropout rates and increase academic success in low-performing high schools, produced encouraging results. In this seven-minute video, researcher Corinne Herlihy summarizes the findings.

Paying for Persistence: A Unique Scholarship Program to Increase Student Success at Community Colleges (7min video)

In this seven-minute video, MDRC researcher Lashawn Richburg-Hayes summarizes promising findings about a performance-based scholarship that boosted academic achievement and retention rates at two New Orleans-area community colleges.

DANGEROUS MENTALLY ILL OFFENDER PROGRAM (WA)

Contact Information
Thomas Saltrup
Program Manager
Community Protection Unit
Department of Corrections
P. O. Box 41127 MS 41127
Olympia, WA 98504
Tel: 360.586.4371

Organization: Government
Start Date: 2000
Program Area: Health

Program Description
The Dangerous Mentally Ill Offender Program began in March 2000 in response to a 1999 Substitute Senate Bill by the Washington Legislature. This bill sought to improve the screening and assessment, as well as the mental health treatment, of dangerous mentally ill offenders (DMIO) released from incarceration. According to the legislation, a DMIO "has a mental disorder and has been determined to be dangerous to himself, herself, or others." For the program's purposes, the conditions for DMIO typically include the major psychoses and affective/mood disorders (not substance abuse disorders) and/ or developmental disabilities (mental retardation).

The first step in the program is identifying those that can be classified as dangerous mentally ill offenders. A multi-agency committee, known as the DMIO Committee, identifies the former offenders that qualify for the program. This statewide committee is co-chaired by the Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Mental Health Division. Members are from Community Mental Health, the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, the Division of Developmental Disabilities, law enforcement agencies, the Regional Support Network (RSN), DOC Mental Health Program, the DOC Special Needs Unit, and the Community Designated Mental Health Professional. Referrals are based on clinical data provided by the Department of Corrections' computer database. Importantly, the "dangerousness" or the public safety risk and the individual's risk to himself or herself are considered. In other words, the committee reviews the criminal history (looking at a variety of factors such as history of crimes against persons and a history of substance abuse) and the social behavior of the candidate to determine whether or not someone is at high risk.

Once a DMIO candidate is identified, a mental health provider is contacted and the pre-release transition process starts. About six months prior to release, a mental health caseworker begins working with the individual; pre-release meetings are scheduled at 90-day, 60-day, and 30-day intervals before release with a Multi-System Care Plan (MSCP) team. The team is made up of a Risk Management Specialist, a representative from the Department of Social and Health Services, a member of the Regional Support Network, a member of the DMIO Community Protection Unit, a Community Corrections Officer, a Classification Counselor, a Community Mental Health worker, and a representative from the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse; others are added on an as needed basis. The MSCP team develops a transition plan with the individual in order to ensure that mental health services and other services (such as housing and transportation) are available upon release.

Program Goals
A primary goal of the DMIO program is to enhance the screening and mental health treatment of appropriate prisoners who are released from incarceration in order to improve their transition back to the community.

Networking, Partnering & Collaboration
The DMIO program collaborates with many agencies and has established many community partnerships. As indicated earlier, members of the DMIO Committee and the Transition Team are comprised of many different agencies. Other agencies and partners involved in this program are advocacy groups, victim witness advocates, and mental health provider organizations. In addition, during the transition stage, which is different for every offender, many agencies and organizations work with the offender. For example, if an offender needs vocational assistance, representatives from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, or a Community College, or employment assistance agency would become part of the team.

Outcomes
In 2002, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy published a preliminary report on the implementation of the DMIO law of 1999, the process of selecting DMIOs, and the treatment services provided to participants. The researchers tried to compare, whenever possible, the DMIO population (26 participants) to a comparison group. The preliminary results suggest that the DMIO program is making an improvement in providing pre-and post-release mental health and post-release chemical dependency services. For example, 83 percent of DMIO clients have received pre-release mental health treatment from community organizations/ partners compared to ten percent of the comparison group. Recidivism findings are expected in 2004.

Additional Reading
Dr. Polly Phipps and Dr. Gregg J. Gagliardi. Preliminary Report. "Implementation of Washington 's Dangerous Mentally Ill Offender Law: Preliminary Findings." Washington State Institute for Public Policy. http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/MentalIllness/pdf/Implement_DMIO_Law.pdf.

Community Transition Program

Indiana: Community Transition Program

Indiana Department of Correction

In 1999, the Indiana state legislature enacted a law providing that state inmates can be transferred to a community corrections program or a program of supervision by a county probation office 60 to 180 days prior to their release date.

Program Established: 1999

Description

Indiana courts can assign individuals who have been convicted of a crime to the Community Transition Program (CTP), a community correc- tions program, or (in a county that does not have a community corrections program) a program of supervision by the probation department. To be eligible for the CTP, individuals must be serving a sentence of at least two years, have Indiana resi- dency status, and have no outstanding warrants and detainers.

Participants serve 60 to 180 days in the CTP, depending on the class of their crime, after which time they are discharged or released to parole or probation as ordered by the court. Sixty days prior to the date when an individual is eligible to begin the CTP, the Department of Correction sends notification to his or her sentencing court. The court then decides whether to allow the individual to enter the program or not.

Individuals accepted into the CTP are trans- ported by the Department of Correction to their sentencing county, where they are supervised by either the local community corrections program or by probation. Programming is up to the discre- tion of each county but may include work release, home detention, and day reporting. Some counties use assessment instruments, such as the LSI-R, to determine programming for individuals being transferred to CTPs. Several counties have formed transition teams to work with participants, parole, and probation. Each county receives 35 dollars per day for each participant during the first thirty days of programming, after which time the rate chang- es to 15 dollars per day.

Contact

Program Manager, Community Transition Program, Indiana Department of Correction
Phone: (317) 234-0194
402 West Washington Street, Room W341, Indianapolis, IN 46204
http://www.in.gov/indcorrection/