The Department of Social and Health Services, State of Washington has undertaken an evaluation of the effectiveness of Job Therapy, Incorporated, in reducing the number of returns to correctional institutions. Job Therapy is a private, non-denominational, religiously oriented organization that has been under contract to provide citizen volunteer sponsorship and job finding services to paroled offenders since July 1, 1970. The sponsorship program is called the Person-to-Person or M-2 program. The aim of this program is to provide community contact through periodic visits of citizen volunteers with those correctional inmates who have inadequate family or other personal ties with the community. The Job Finding services are called the Job Start pro¬gram, and the object of this program is to help ex-prisoners obtain jobs in the community after their release from the correctional institution. The Job Therapy staff express the ultimate aim of both programs as the rehabilitation of their clients with the intended result of reducing the rate of recidivism among those given service. Among other goals are those of helping the client make an easier transition from prison to society, encouraging the parolee to realize a better work attitude, persuading employers to hire ex-felons, and presenting correctional problems and alternatives to existing correctional programs to the public at-large. The current evaluation examines the recidivism rates for persons paroled during fiscal years 1970 and 1971. The population for each fiscal year was subsequently separated into three groups: (1) those who did not have contact with Job Therapy; (2) those who were recipients of Job Therapy services and were primarily involved in the Person-to-Person program; (3) those who had contact with Job Therapy only through the Job Start program.
