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This paper presents the results of two experimental evaluations of transitional jobs programs for recently released former prisoners: the Evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) and the Transitional Jobs Reentry Demonstration (TJRD). The analysis assesses the effects of these programs on employment and recidivism. [The authors] find that the programs in both studies led to a large increase in employment driven by the transitional jobs themselves. However, the programs did not increase employment in non-program jobs. In addition, the CEO transitional jobs program reduced recidivism, but the TJRD programs did not. These results have implications for policy and research.

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The programs funded under [Re-integration of Ex-offenders] RExO primarily provide three main types of services to ex-offenders: mentoring, which most often took the form of group mentoring, but also included one-on-one mentoring and other activities; employment services, including work readiness training, job training, job placement, job clubs, transitional employment, and post-placement follow-up; and case management and supportive services. This report summarizes the initial impacts of the RExO program on offender outcomes in four areas: service receipt, labor market success, recidivism, and other outcomes. The results are based on outcomes for these individuals in the two-year period after they enrolled into the study. Two sources of data provided outcome information for this analysis: a telephone survey that asked about a range of items, including service receipt, labor market outcomes, recidivism, health and mental health, substance abuse, housing, and child support issues and administrative data that provided state and local criminal engagement information.

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The purpose of the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) was to assist youths aged 14 to 25 with disabilities to successfully transition from school to economic self-sufficiency. Successful transitions included pursuing a post-secondary education or employment. Through agreements with community-based agencies at six sites in five US States, YTD provided a broad array of transition-related services and supports to participants. The YTD staff also established partnerships with other agencies and with employers to improve employment and educational outcomes. Services included: individualized work-based experiences; youth empowerment; family supports; system linkages; social and health services; and benefits counseling. Recognizing that a major barrier to employment for youths with disabilities is the fear of losing Social Security benefits, the YTD provided five waivers of program rules designed to allow participants to keep more of their earnings and encourage both savings and their continued education.

This document reports on the evaluation of YTD undertaken by Mathematica Policy Research for Social Security Administration (SSA). The purpose of the evaluation was to identify and test the most promising service strategies, combined with SSA waivers of certain program rules to enhance work incentives, for helping youth with disabilities maximize their economic self-sufficiency as they transition to adulthood. SSA selected six project sites into the evaluation based on their adoption of promising strategies to support youth with disabilities and on their capacity and willingness to support evaluation activities. Projects entered the YTD random assignment evaluation in two phases spaced several years apart. There were systematic differences between the phases in how the projects were implemented and their impacts on youth. The evaluation's three-year impact analysis examined each project's impacts on youth outcomes in five domains: (1) paid employment and earnings; (2) youth income; (3) participation in productive activities; (4) contact with the justice system; and (5) self-determination. The implications of the YTD evaluation for policy and practice will not be fully known until findings from SSA's long-term benefit-cost analysis become available. At a minimum, that will be several years in the future. In the meantime, six implications based on the findings presented in this report and the site-specific interim reports are outlined.

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