Recidivism Data Collection for Community Offender Reentry Programs

Community offender reentry programs (CORP) rely heavily on state and federal funding to offer career and reentry services in their communities. This paper describes the creation of a new streamlined recidivism data collection process for accurate reporting to fund sources for continued financial support. A process consultation approach allowed the authors to provide questions and guidance to the organization while employees worked through the existing process and identified a leaner, streamlined approach to accurately reporting recidivism data. The new process will allow the organization to more accurately and consistently report data to fund sources while also reducing waste in the form of overproduction, correction errors, and the underutilization of human resources. The evaluation implementation is still in early stages, but shows great promise for easing reporting concerns by the CORP.