Evaluation of the Los Angeles County Regimented Inmate Diversion (RID) Program, 1990-1991 (ICPSR 6236)

Time Period(s)

1990-09 -- 1991-08

Date of Collection

1990-09 -- 1993-02

Data Collection Notes

In this hierarchical dataset, there are eight separate record types. The "I" level contains demographic/criminal data, the "BB" and "B" levels include state and county arrest data, respectively, the "K" level contains flag data for internal use, the "C" level contains the boot camp data, the "D" level is the drug history, the "W" level reflects the drug tests, and the "J" level is the serious incidence data. There are 28 variables and 760 cases for the "I" level, 10 variables and 4,353 cases for the "BB" level, 10 variables and 1,370 cases for the "B" level, 3 variables and 346 cases for the "K" level, 41 variables and 547 cases for the "C" level, 6 variables and 604 cases for the "D" level, 5 variables and 511 cases for the "W" level, and 4 variables and 157 cases for the "J" level.

Study Purpose

The Regimented Inmate Diversion (RID) program is a pilot program initiated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, in cooperation with the county probation authorities. This program was intended to function as a sentencing option for selected defendants who were likely to receive lengthy jail sentences. The evaluation of the RID program was undertaken to determine whether county-operated boot camp programs for male inmates were feasible and cost-effective, based on the Los Angeles experience. Another aim of the study was to translate lessons learned from the RID experiment into policy implications concerning whether jail-operated boot camp programs should be implemented on a larger scale.

Study Design

The Regimented Inmate Diversion (RID) program had a strong orientation toward inmate participation in formal education classes, drug treatment, and counseling sessions. The evaluation design consists of both process and impact components to assess fully the overall effects of the RID program on offenders and the county jail system. The process component was designed to document how the RID program actually operated in terms of its selection criteria, delivery of programs, length of participation, and program completion rates, as well as documenting how various program components were modified over time in attempts to increase participation in the program and keep the program operational. The impact component was to assess the degree to which program objectives were met by measuring of recidivism, program costs, institutional behavior, and RID's effect on jail crowding. To achieve these objectives, a quasi-experimental design was implemented. The research established statistically-matched control and experimental populations to predict what would have happened to offenders had the RID program not existed. Equivalency was controlled through the administration of certain pre-test measures and by ensuring that control cases were similar in key demographic and criminal history attributes.

Sample

Inmates admitted between September 1990 and June 1991 to the boot camp portion of the RID program comprised the experimental group of 544. A comparison control group consisted of 216 offenders who volunteered for RID and were screened and accepted into the program, but were not admitted into the program.

Universe

Male inmates of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Regimented Inmate Diversion Program.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individuals

Data Source

self-enumerated questionnaires, key-entered data, and data downloaded from the Los Angeles Sheriff's automated data system

event/transaction data, and survey data

Description of Variables

Variables include demographic/criminal data (e.g., race, date of birth, arrest charge, bail and amount, sentence days, certificates acquired), historical state and county arrest data (e.g., date of crime, charge, disposition, probation time, jail time, type of crime), boot camp data (e.g., entry into and exit from boot camp, reason for exit, probation dates, living conditions, marital status, employment status, income, restitution order), drug history data (e.g., drug used, frequency, method), data on drug tests, and serious incidence data.

Response Rates

Not applicable

Presence of Common Scales

Not applicable

Original Release Date

1994-10-19

Version Date

1994-10-19

Version History

1994-10-19 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

• Standardized missing values.
• Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
• Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.