In the United States, recidivism has been identified as one of the most critical concepts in criminal justice. The concept refers to an ability of an individual relapsing into criminal behavior. Typically, the recidivism has been measured by a criminal act, which led to reconviction, re-arrest, or return to prison. According to data released by the National Institution of Justice (2015), approximately 67.8%, which is about two-third of the released prisoners are rearrested within three years of their released. Within five years, 76.6%, three- quarter of the released prisoners are rearrested. Moreover, property offenders and those sentenced for drug crimes are in the top lists of the released prisoners likely to be rearrested. The SCA (Second Chance Act) is the federal government program designed in reducing recidivism as well as improving outcomes of individual returning from jails.
The report carries out the evaluability assessment of the Second Chance Act to determine whether the program will be able to meet its target objective.
Evaluability Assessment of the Second Chance Act
The study uses the Roca's Intervention Model as the evaluability assessment. The Second Act Program is very critical in reducing the number of recidivism in the United States....
A report carried out by Rockefeller Foundation (2012) reveals that 55% of release people from Commonwealth of Massachusetts returns to prison and "it costs Massachusetts costs Massachusetts an average of $47,000 to incarcerate a prisoner for a year." (Rockefeller Foundation, 2012 p 6). Despite the goal of the SCA, it is still critical to evaluate the program to avoid wasting the tax-payer money into a white elephant project.
A valid method to carry out the evaluability assessment of SCA is to introduce the innovative social program that will assist the released prisoners moving away from the criminal activities. Despite the benefit of this program, the program is underfunded amidst of tight budget making the state government believing that the program is a risky initiative. However, the Roca's intervention model assists young people transforming their life and move towards achieving an economic independence. The model is designed to assist the released prisoners to move away from the prisons. The first strategy in the model is to use the behavioral and cognitive tools to change the behaviors of the selected people by making them engaging in the pre-vocational training, and vocational training to assist them gaining full employment. Roca uses the theory of change in assisting…
