1999
Review of Agency Treatment Effectiveness
Conclusion
TYC’s recidivism rates
on two key outcome measures have been substantially reduced over a five-year
period:
- rearrest for a violent
offense decreased from 16.8% in 1995 to 8.6% in 1999; and
- reincarceration for any
offense decreased from 33.4% in 1995 to 26.9% in 1999.
Even after subtracting differences
due to known predictors of recidivism, there has been a:
- 48% reduction since 1995
in the one-year rearrest rate for any violent offense.
While not a key performance measure,
TYC also had a:
- 13% reduction since 1995
in the one-year rearrest rate for a felony offense.
Given these reductions
in the most serious criminal offenses, it must be concluded that TYC has
been increasingly successful in reducing subsequent criminal behavior. It
is believed that the primary reasons for this decline are improvements in
the resocialization rehabilitation technique and greater emphasis on youth
being held accountable for their actions.
After statistically removing initial differences between groups, each of
the four specialized treatment areas had at least one outcome measure that
demonstrated reduced recidivism for youth receiving specialized treatment.
There were no cases in which youth receiving specialized treatment had significantly
higher rates than youth not receiving specialized treatment after controlling
for initial differences between the groups.The capital offender and sex
offender programs were found to be particularly effective in reducing violent
offenses:
- receiving any capital
offender treatment reduced by 53% the likelihood of capital offenders
being rearrested for a violent offense within a year from release;
- receiving any sex offender
treatment reduced by 47% the likelihood of sex offenders being rearrested
for a violent offense within one year; and
- only one of 257 (0.4%)
sex offenders receiving sex offender treatment was rearrested for a
violent sex offense within one year and only four of 219 (1.8%) of sex
offenders receiving treatment were rearrested for a violent sex offense
within three years.
These reductions in rearrest for
violent offenses are especially important because of the impact violent
offenses have on offenders, victims and society as a whole, and because
the focus of these two programs is primarily to reduce future violent offenses.
The capital and sex offender treatment programs also reduced the likelihood
of rearrest for any offense within one year. The chemical dependency treatment
program at TYC-operated McFadden Ranch, a non-secure facility, was found
to reduce recidivism on rearrest for a violent offense within one year,
rearrest for any offense within one year, and reincarceration for any offense
within one year.
Although secure chemical dependency treatment programs were not found to
have a statistically significant impact on the recidivism measures, several
factors were identified which hindered program success.
Analysis of this report and other data will help identify the refinements
needed to recapture the positive treatment effect on TYC youth previously
found in secure chemical dependency treatment programs. The results indicate
that even as TYC rates have improved overall, specialized treatment programs
reduce recidivism more than youth receiving only the basic resocialization
program.
TYC continues to improve its ability to monitor and evaluate its programs.
In the last year it has revised the parole phase of resocialization and
developed a unified plan for making and tracking referrals to specialized
aftercare services.TYC continues to use its data to refine the quality of
its services, to increase the accountability of its systems, and to improve
the outcomes experienced by the youth.
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