A three-year study conducted by MDRC and the Vera Institute found that the Center for Employment Opportunities’ prisoner reentry program reduced recidivism by 16 to 22 percent. The impact was greatest on the recently incarcerated who were most disadvantaged and at greatest risk of returning to prison. “Reductions in recidivism are difficult to achieve,” the study reported, “and have rarely been seen in rigorous evaluations such as this one.”

The study also estimated the program’s total net benefit to taxpayers was about $4,100 per program participant, and as high as $8,300 for someone recently released. Most benefits came in the form of reduced criminal justice expenditures and the value of services participants provided to government agencies in the program’s transitional job work sites. “This initiative … more than paid for itself,” columnist Nicholas D. Kristof wrote in The New York Times. “Each $1 brought up to $3.85 in benefits.”

Read the study.

Since 2003, the Foundation has invested $9.75 million to help CEO develop and implement its business plan. Among its accomplishments during this period, CEO implemented an organization-wide performance tracking and management system, and designed a specialized outreach program to address the needs of young participants. During the course of EMCF's latest investment ($2 million over one year), CEO will begin to implement its latest three-year growth plan. During the first year, CEO will make a series of decisions that will chart future growth, address organizational capacity needs, and explore an additional independent, rigorous evaluation of its program model.

In 2011, CEO received an EMCF Social Innovation Fund investment, with a $2.25 million first-year award, to support new replication in Oklahoma and California, expansion in upstate New York, and a second evaluation of its employment model.  Awards in years two and three, which are contingent on grantee performance and renewal of federal SIF funding, will provide up to $3.75 million, for an overall investment of up to $6 million over three years. These activities have not been funded by previous EMCF investments.

For information on what this grant will support, see Details of 2012-2014 Investment.

For more information, visit CEO’s website at www.ceoworks.org.