In October 1993, the California Board of
Corrections and the federal National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
entered into a cooperative agreement under NIJ's "State Evaluation
Capacity Building Program" initiative. Under this initiative, the
Board of Corrections proposed to conduct process and outcome
evaluations of jail inmate training programs. The proposal resulted
from the Board of Correction's newly-acquired responsibility to
disseminate federal Perkins Act funds to local jurisdictions in
California. The Perkins Act was established to fund local jail inmate
training operations. The purpose of the evaluation research was (1) to
refine the process of determining what types of training should be
funded and (2) to establish research-based evaluation protocols for
local jail inmate training programs. Researchers chose to evaluate the
Office Technology Training program at the Rio Consumnes Correctional
Center (RCCC) in Sacramento County. Researchers sought to answer the
following questions: (1) To what extent do inmates who achieve a
certificate of completion in at least one component of Office
Technology Training differ in their institutional adjustment and
post-release behavior from inmates who choose no training? (2) Does
the training group achieve better results than the control group in
the post-release setting with respect to institutional adjustment,
employment, and legal behavior?
This project was designed as a process and outcome
evaluation of job training programs for jail inmates in
California. The first step was to decide which programs to
evaluate. At the time the project began, the California Board of
Corrections had funded three training programs. After an initial
assessment of these programs, two of the three were disqualified for
evaluation because: (1) the goals of the training program were not
specifically stated, (2) class attendance was not recorded, (3) there
was no tracking system for the inmates participating in the training,
which inhibited the ability to monitor post-release status, and (4) it
was difficult to obtain a reasonable control group. The result of the
initial assessment was that the Rio Consumnes Correctional Center
(RCCC), run by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, was the
only feasible evaluation site. RCCC is a county jail for prisoners
sentenced up to one year in custody. The training program at RCCC was
operated by the Elk Grove Unified School District. While RCCC had
several training programs, the one chosen for evaluation was the
Office Technology Training program. This program was designed to
familiarize students with the use of computers in an office or
business setting and to provide specific instruction in several types
of common office software, including word processing and desktop
publishing. The program evaluation was conducted using administrative
records data and a survey of program participants. Inmates who
participated in the training at RCCC were asked to fill out an
evaluation form indicating their prior experience with computers and
software, evaluating the training they received, and assessing whether
the new skills would be helpful in securing employment upon their
release. Data were collected from participants of the Office
Technology Training class, a control group that matched the
participants in terms of demographic characteristics, and a smaller
group of nonparticipants who had signed up for the training program
but did not participate. Part 1, Treatment and Control Group Data,
contains administrative and survey data on both the trainees and the
control group, while Part 2, Nonparticipant Data, includes
administrative and survey data on the inmates who registered for the
training but did not participate in the program. Administrative
records on all inmates (trainees, control, and nonparticipants) were
collected from a supplemental form on inmates' employment, a probation
report that provided personal and criminal histories, a risk
assessment form, and a follow-up form completed by the probation
officer within one week of the six-month anniversary of the inmate's
release from RCCC. Additional administrative records data on trainees
and nonparticipants were gathered from the class registration form,
while other data on trainees came from an evaluation form completed by
the students' instructor upon completion of the Office Technology
class.
Convenience sampling.
All minimum security housing inmates at the Rio Consumnes
Correctional Center in Sacramento County, California, in 1994.
individuals
self-enumerated questionnaires and administrative
records
administrative records data,
survey data
Variables from the class registration form included
gender, education, birth date, ethnicity, language spoken, occupation,
Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) scores, and class
assignments. The instructor's evaluation form provided information on
the behavior, attitude, and skills of the students. Variables from the
supplemental form included employment type and wages. The study
evaluation form gathered information on previous computer training and
students' evaluations of the Office Technology class. The probation
report covered employment, education, military history, marital
status, substance abuse, domestic violence, gang behavior, psychiatric
history, child abuse history, and criminal histories as juveniles and
adults. Data on attitude, alcohol and drug problems, number of felony
convictions, probation periods and violations, types of offenses, and
history of institutionalization were taken from the risk assessment
form. The follow-up form gathered information on release, disciplinary
actions at RCCC, opinions about the Office Technology Training
program, substance abuse, new arrests and convictions, gang behavior,
job training, employment type, hourly wage, job satisfaction, and use
of computers on the job.
Not applicable.
Several Likert-type scales were used, as well as the
Test for Adult Basic Education (TABE).