Logic Modeling as a Mechanism for Improving Prisoner Reentry Programs

Abstract

The dramatic growth in levels of incarceration in the United States over the last half-century has presented policymakers with the question of how to improve the process of transitioning individuals from prison to communities in a way that promotes successful reentry outcomes and promotes maintains public safety. Past studies evaluating the effectiveness of reentry have tended to fall short in many ways: These evaluations that traditionally use a particular outcome measure like recidivism to judge program effectiveness have largely been characterized by weak methods and incomplete or uncredible findings. Further, even these studies that employ strong methods to account for confounding variables, they do not provide insight into particular strengths or weaknesses of program models, or how particular strategies or services utilized by a reentry program may influence program experiences and outcomes to various degrees. As research continues to try to evaluate “what works” in reentry program, we propose an alternative method for reentry program evaluations: evaluating program logic models. This study uses qualitative interview data from individuals involved with five organizations who conduct reentry programming to evaluates the extent to which one particular method, logic modeling, can be a significant resource for both program evaluators and program directors. We hypothesized that using logic modeling, or deconstructing program models into categories of their most basic aspects, could serve as a useful tool for both researchers and program directors in evaluating reentry programs. We found that logic modeling would allow program evaluators to conduct sophisticated cross-analyses of program models, which when used in conjunction with participant feedback or program report data, can assist in identifying particular strengths and weaknesses in program models or discrepancies in program components that could have influenced particular outcomes. Further, our analysis found that logic modeling can be a mechanism for program directors to improve program models and service provision, as utilizing logic models can assist program directors in reducing the pervasiveness of internal management issues that cause poor service provision and misuse of resources, as well as assisting them in identifying program components that could be modified or added for improved program experiences and outcomes. We discuss numerous significant implications for policymakers, evaluators, and program directors. We recommend that researchers utilize logic models, in both internal and cross-evaluation studies, to identify successful aspects of reentry program models; that program directors frequently refer to their own logic models to improve service provision and reduce internal management issues; and that policymakers modify criminal justice practices that impose greater barriers for individuals during the reentry process, and include provisions in grants to reentry programs to require the publication of logic models for implementation of stronger program models.