AFTERCARE FOR INDIANA THROUGH MENTORING (AIM)

PROGRESS TO DATE

JANUARY 2004

To date, we have served 2,124 youths that have been released to the community. We continue to work with several hundred youths that will be released at some point in the future. Since the original project award, we have achieved the following:

• successfully established our program at the nine correctional facilities and three contract facilities
• refined our procedures so that we more effectively deliver our curriculum, “Life After Incarceration” and prepare reentry plans for larger numbers of youths
• established and staffed support centers in Indianapolis and Gary to serve the needs of the youths after their release
• created successful partnerships in the community to address the needs of the youths in the areas of employment, education, health, leisure activities, community service, counseling services
• streamlined the processes to obtain birth certificates and social security cards for the youths prior to their release
• further refined our recruitment and training programs for mentors
• generated positive strategies to attract youths to program prior to their release

From the ongoing evaluation of AIM, we can report on the following outcomes that have been achieved:

• 49% of AIM participants are currently attending school
• while many of the youths are able to find employment after their release, at any one time 22% of the youths are currently employed
• 60% of AIM participants are currently attending school or working
• of the 643 youths released to Marion County over the 12-month period of June 2002 to May 2003, 480 visited the AIM Support Center for assistance
• of the youths who take part in our Support Center programs, 63% participate in two or more activities/services
• over a three-year period, we have the following information about offending behaviors:

Measure	Participated in AIM	Did not participate in AIM
Arrests in first year	38.5%	41.7%
Felony arrests in first year	27.3%	33.3%
Convictions in first year	13.4%	18.1%
Felony convictions in first year	7.0%	10.8%

In 1997, all youths leaving the Plainfield facility and returning to the Indianapolis metropolitan area were randomly assigned to be eligible for AIM or not. We have been following these youths for almost six years now since their release. For the first three years after their release we can report the following results related to reincarceration:

	Percent Reincarcerated
	after 12 months	after 24 months	after 36 months
Full AIM program	13%	18%	24%
Not in AIM	39%	49%	60%

The results also demonstrate that when the program is implemented effectively, it can make a significant difference in the offending behavior of the youths involved and in the strain on criminal justice resources. These results also demonstrate that mentoring is critical for the long-term success of the youths.

Other results on offending behaviors over the six years since their release compare three groups from the randomized experiment. Group 1 participated in AIM prior to and after their release. Group 2 participated in AIM prior to their release but not after. Group 3 did not participate in AIM. Here are some selected results (with the differences between groups 1 and 3 in each case being statistically significant):

Percent Reincarcerated:

Group 1: 43.8% Group 2: 50.0% Group 3: 62.2%

Odds of Reincarceration:

Group 1: 0.779 Group 2: 1.000 Group 3: 1.646

Percent Arrested:

Group 1: 67.9% Group 2: 70.0% Group 3: 82.9%

Percent Convicted:

Group 1: 53.6% Group 2: 55.0% Group 3: 66.2%

Conditional Probability of Reincarceration given an Arrest has occurred:

Group 1: .474 Group 2: .643 Group 3: .677

In terms of costs, our evaluation has led us to conclude that for every 100 youths participating in AIM, the amount of savings to the state, just in terms of reductions in reincarceration, would be $1,003,454.