Moving Closer to Home Before Release: Evaluating a Step-Down Strategy to Transfer Adults in State Prisons to Local Correctional Systems, Massachusetts, 2004-2017 (ICPSR 39193)
Jail reentry step-down programs were pioneered in the 1990s in Hampden County, Massachusetts through a partnership between the Massachusetts Department of Correction (MADOC) and the Hampden County Sheriff's Office (HCSO). Step-down models enable people incarcerated in state prisons to transfer to a jail facility in their home community to serve the last portion of their sentence and gradually "step-down" to lower security classification levels prior to their release. During this time, the person is able to reconnect with local family and friends and receive community reentry services. In 2010, a Second Chance Act grant was awarded to HCSO, which expanded the reentry programming and program capacity and enabled HCSO to include people at higher security levels in the step-down program.
The purpose of this evaluation was to examine whether jails could serve as effective reentry transition facilities for adults incarcerated in state prisons who are preparing to return to their communities, using the HCSO step-down program as the model. Conducting a process, impact, and cost analysis, the researchers collected data from program reports, documents, administrative data, interviews with service providers and stakeholders, and focus groups with step-down program participants. Administrative data were releases to Hampden and Worcester County from MADOC custody between 2004-2017 (n=6,087 individuals, 7,577 releases) and line-item costs of operating reentry services.
This collection contains data from the impact analysis (DS1) and cost analysis (DS2) of HCSO's step-down program. Please note that qualitative data from the process analysis is not available.