Does Release Planning for Serious and Persistent Mental Illness Offenders Reduce Recidivism? Results From an Outcome Evaluation

Abstract

Since 2002, the Minnesota Department of Corrections has provided release-planning services to serious and persistent mentally ill (SPMI) offenders. This study assesses the effectiveness of SPMI release planning by examining recidivism outcomes among 796 offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 2004 and 2011. Propensity score matching was used to individually match 398 SPMI offenders who received release planning with a comparison group of 398 SPMI offenders who did not receive these services. The results from the Cox regression analyses showed that SPMI release planning did not have a significant impact on any of the four recidivism measures that were analyzed. Release planning’s failure to reduce recidivism may be due to the fact that these services were designed to treat mental illness rather than address the criminogenic needs of offenders.