Offender Reentry and Cognitive Intervention: Propensity Score Matching Utility for Outcome Assessment

The mass incarceration policies of recent decades have created the corresponding realization that the vast majority of these individuals will someday be released back into society. Failure to properly prepare these individuals for their return to society will result in a large number of these individuals returning to prison. This research uses propensity score matching to create comparison groups in order to evaluate a cognitive intervention program designed to reduce recidivism. Survival analysis reveals that offenders who completed the program were less likely to recidivate and their survival time was longer when compared to offenders who did not complete the program.