GOOD INTENTIONS MEET HARD REALITIES: AN EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT GREENLIGHT REENTRY PROGRAM*

Abstract

Research Summary: The literature on correctional interventions (“What Works”) suggests that programs incorporating multimodal or cognitive-behavioral skills training consistently show moderate results in reducing offender recidivism. Project Greenlight was an innovative, short-term, prison-based reentry program that drew extensively from that literature. Survival analyses show that intervention participants performed significantly worse on multiple measures of recidivism after one year, and multivariate analyses indicate that covariates fail to mediate the observed relationships. The authors offer several potential explanations for their findings, but they speculate that the answer lies somewhere in a combination of implementation difficulties, program design, and a mismatch between the targeted offender population and the program. Policy Implications: Although there is extensive empirical support for multimodal programs in correctional interventions, especially those that involve or rest on cognitive skills foundations, little is actually known about the efficacy or limitations of different program models. The authors' analysis suggests that some short-term, prison-based programs, especially attractive to states and criminal justice agencies because of the low cost and capability to handle large numbers of offenders, may be poorly situated to address the multiple needs of offenders as they return to the community, and may in fact, increase the probability of criminal behavior. These findings also suggest that correctional interventions need to pay attention to the treatment principles underlying successful interventions and not simply the components of programs known to work.