Massachusetts Department of Correction
One-Year Recidivism Rates of Men and
Women Released 2017 – 2020: A Multi-Year
Descriptive Analysis of Risk Reduction
Programs
Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
September 2023
Maura T. Healey, Governor
Terrence M. Reidy, Secretary of Public Safety and Security
 Descriptive Analysis of Risk Reduction Programs
Prepared by:
Hollie A. Matthews, Deputy Director, Research and Planning Division
Matthew J. Moniz, Director, Program Services and Reentry
Kelly Paquin, Operations Analyst Manager, Office of Assistant Deputy
Commissioner of Reentry
Jiqiang Rong, Statistician, Research and Planning Division
Bernard Audette, Director of Inmate Training and Education
Rhiana Kohl, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Strategic Planning & Research
Massachusetts Department of Correction
Research and Planning Division
50 Maple Street
Milford, MA 01757
Research@massmail.state.ma.us
Acknowledgments
The publication of this report would not be possible without the assistance of the following:
Massachusetts Department of Correction, Inmate Training and Education Division
Massachusetts Department of Correction, Program Services Division
Massachusetts Department of Correction, Research and Planning Division
If you have any questions regarding this report, please contact the Research and Planning
Division.
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 Descriptive Analysis of Risk Reduction Programs
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................... i
Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... ii
Definition of Terms .................................................................................................................. 1
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................. 4
Key Findings ............................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 5
Methodology for Program Eligibility ................................................................................. 5
Methodology for Recidivism Analysis ............................................................................... 7
Women Data Findings: Criminogenic Need Programs ................................................ 8
Men Data Findings: Criminogenic Need Programs .................................................... 11
Men Multiple Need Cohorts ................................................................................................ 14
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 16
Appendix ................................................................................................................................... 17
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 Descriptive Analysis of Risk Reduction Programs
De inition of Terms
Academic Education Services: Incarcerated individuals without a high school diploma or equivalency
upon admission are identi ied as being eligible for Academic Education Services, which range from
English as a Second Language (ESL) to Adult Secondary Education (ASE) and facilitates incarcerated
individuals earning their high school equivalency.
COMPAS: Correctional Offender Management Pro iling for Alternative Sanctions is an automated
risk/needs assessment tool utilized to inform the development of an incarcerated individuals
personalized program plan. COMPAS has been normed and validated to the Massachusetts
Department of Correction population.
Correctional Recovery Academy (CRA): Is an intensive 6-month substance use program currently
located at four institutions: Northeastern Correctional Center, MCI-Norfolk, MCI-Shirley, and MCI-
Concord. CRA targets relapse prevention and cognitive behavioral treatment. The program utilizes
rolling admission and combines elements of a therapeutic community’s social learning approach with
an advanced cognitive behavioral curriculum.
Criminal Addictive Thinking Program (CT): Is an 8-week program designed to focus on altering the
pro-criminal thinking patterns identi ied as separating those who are serious repeat incarcerated
individuals from those who are not. The program focuses speci ically on criminal sentiments and how
to develop pro-social alternatives to pro-criminal activities and associates.
Criminogenic Need: Factors which impact criminal behavior and can be altered over time with
appropriate treatment and programming.
High School Diploma or Equivalent (General Equivalency Diploma, High School Equivalency Test):
Education level associated with incarcerated individuals with a veri ied High School Diploma or High
School Equivalency Credential, or those who earned a High School Equivalency Credential during
their current incarceration.
Need Met: Indicates an incarcerated individual who completed the core program for the
corresponding criminogenic need area. For example, male incarcerated individuals with a substance
use, anger, or criminal thinking need are recommended for the Correctional Recovery Academy
(CRA), Violence Reduction Program (VR), or Criminal Addictive Thinking Program (CT), respectively.
Need Not Met: Indicates the incarcerated individual who either did not enroll into a core program or
enrolled and did not complete. Reasons for not completing a program include, but are not limited to,
release, transfer, discipline process, voluntary withdrawal, and failure to meet program expectations.
Override: As part of the Massachusetts Department of Correction case management model,
incarcerated individuals who do not score moderate or high in a criminogenic need area based on
their needs assessment, a program recommendation is formulated by their Correctional Program
Of icer (CPO) due to documentary evidence the incarcerated individual can bene it from participating
in such a program.
Pathway Program Continuum: For women, gender-responsive and trauma-informed approaches
have been incorporated into the framework of treatment services for the incarcerated individuals.
Each Pathway has a unique set of curricula designed to address each incarcerated individual’s speci ic
pathway into the criminal justice system with the goal of reducing the likelihood of recidivism by
addressing the unique issues associated with incarcerated individuals such as trauma, abuse,
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 Descriptive Analysis of Risk Reduction Programs
relationship dysfunction, substance abuse, and mental illness. The four Pathways are as follows: Life
in Recovery, Building Positive Connections, Healthy Living Community, and Healing for the Future.
The model of facilitation addresses multiple need areas within one week of instruction. While the
incarcerated individual may be enrolled for the entirety of one’s sentence, program completion is
achieved when the incarcerated individual participates in 26-weeks of each curriculum represented
in the incarcerated individual’s Pathway Continuum.
Pathway to Recovery (PTR): A non-residential substance abuse program that is 16 weeks in duration
and meets three times per week for a total treatment dosage of 72 hours. Groups are psycho-
educational in nature and consist of didactic lectures, group discussions, and skills practice. Upon
completion of the program, participants are recommended to the Substance Abuse (SA) Graduate
Maintenance Program. This program is intended to allow participants to remain engaged in their
recovery and SA treatment for the duration of their sentence.
Recidivist: For the purposes of this report, a recidivist is de ined as any incarcerated individual in the
study cohort who, within one year of one’s release to the community, is arraigned for an offense that
ultimately results in a conviction. For this purpose, “conviction” is de ined as any outcome involving
a new criminal sentence, probation, suspended sentence, ine, or guilty inding. Additional follow-up
time is necessary to collect data because of the time required for an incarcerated individual’s new
criminal charge to reach inal resolution in the trial court. For example, if an incarcerated individual
who was released on January 1, 2013, was arraigned for a new offense on March 1, 2013, and
subsequently convicted and sentenced in February 2015, that incarcerated individual would be
treated as having recidivated within the one-year period.
Recidivism Rate: The recidivism rate is calculated by dividing the number of incarcerated individuals
reconvicted within one year of release by the number of incarcerated individuals in the release
cohort.
Recidivism Risk Score: On intake to the prison system, each incarcerated individual is given
assessments to establish their Intake/Criminal History/Risk Scale Set. Components of the scale set
are the General and Violent Recidivism Risk Scores which may be used to predict recidivism risk. The
risk scores are based on a COMPAS Core scale which is a standard decile scale with 1 corresponding
to the lowest risk of recidivism and 10 corresponding to the highest risk. The amount of programming
required for a given incarcerated individual is established by simplifying this scale to Low, Moderate,
and High recidivism risk incarcerated individuals. Incarcerated individuals scoring a moderate to
high risk to recidivate in either the general or the violent recidivism scale are administered a needs
assessment and the incarcerated individual is referred to programming. Due to the implementation
of the COMPAS Assessment, incarcerated individuals who were incarcerated at the time of the roll-
out were administered a Standing Risk Assessment as a proxy to the Initial Risk or Core Risk
Assessment. Those assessment scales are used interchangeably in the analysis.
Typology Assessment: A trauma-informed gender-biased COMPAS assessment designed to apply
further identi ication pertaining to an incarcerated individual’s speci ic criminogenic needs and to
guide matching interventions.
Violence Reduction (VR): Violence Reduction is an 8-week program that targets cognitions that
contribute to violent behavior. The goal of this program is to decrease violent behavior and the
likelihood of institutional disturbances. During the program, participants identify the speci ic
cognitions which have led to their violent behavior. Once those cognitions are identi ied, participants
are taught pro-social strategies and skills to diminish the likelihood of continued violence. Upon
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completion of the program, participants are recommended to the General Population Maintenance
Program.
Vocational Programming: Instructional programs focusing on the skills required for a speci ic job
function or trade. Current vocational program opportunities include the following: automotive,
barber training, building trades, culinary arts, food service training, small engine repair, welding, and
wheelchair repair.
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 Descriptive Analysis of Risk Reduction Programs
Executive Summary
The purpose of this study is to analyze the recidivism rates1 of Massachusetts Department of
Correction (MA DOC) criminally sentenced incarcerated individuals who completed programs to
address their criminogenic need areas and were released to the community via expiration of sentence
or parole from January 1, 2017 – December 31, 2020, to determine if expected reductions in
recidivism were observed. The report is divided into two sections: one for female releases and one
for male releases. For the female releases, the four programs examined were Pathways, general
population services, vocational programming, and Academic Education. For male releases, the six
programs examined were Criminal Thinking, Academic Education, Violence Reduction, Correctional
Recovery Academy (CRA), Vocational Programming, and Pathway to Recovery (PTR) program.
Key Findings
 Program completion was associated with a lower rate of one-year recidivism for three of the
four programs for female releases and four of the six programs for male releases.
 For incarcerated individuals released to the community from January 1, 2017 to December
31, 2020, the overall one-year recidivism rate was 11.0% for men and 14.2% for women.
 Women who released and participated in Pathway Programming had a significantly lower
recidivism rate when completing a minimum of 26 weeks of Pathway Programming. The
recidivism rate was 4.4% for women who completed a minimum of 26 weeks of Pathway
Programming compared to 15.3% for those who participated for less than26 weeks.
 Women who were eligible for Academic Education and earned a High School equivalency had
a recidivism rate of 6.9% compared to 14.5% for those who did not earn this equivalency.
 The recidivism rate for women released who were eligible for vocational programming and
completed the certification was 0.0%, compared to 10.0% for those who did not earn a
vocational certification.
 The recidivism rate for men released who were eligible for substance use programming and
completed the CRA was 7.6% compared to 15.4% for the incarcerated individuals who did
not complete this program.
 The recidivism rate for men released who were eligible for anger management programming
and completed the Violence Reduction Program was 10.9% compared to 14.5% for those who
did not complete this program.
 The recidivism rate for men released who were eligible for criminal thinking programming
and completed the Criminal Addictive Thinking Program was 11.5% compared to 14.2% for
those who did not complete this program.
 The recidivism rate for men released who were eligible for vocational programming and
completed the certification was 6.2% compared to 11.8% for those who did not earn a
vocational certification.
 Analysis illustrating the completion of multiple programs and the associated recidivism rates
indicates that completion of the CRA was driving the lower recidivism rate among male
releases. This is evidenced by incarcerated individuals who completed Violence Reduction,
1
The recidivism rate is based on reconviction within one year for criminally sentenced incarcerated individuals
released to the community via expiration of sentence or parole from January 1, 2017 – December 31, 2020,
whose first release occurred during this time-period. The reconviction date is based on the initial arraignment
date associated with the reconviction. The recidivism rate is calculated by dividing the number of incarcerated
individuals reconvicted by the number of incarcerated individuals in the release cohort.
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 Descriptive Analysis of Risk Reduction Programs
Criminal Thinking, and Academic Education programs without completing the CRA
recidivating at a higher rate.
Introduction
A primary objective of the MA DOC is to rehabilitate incarcerated individuals and prepare them for
successful reentry to the community with the purpose of increasing the likelihood for them to
become productive citizens. Incarcerated men are assessed through a risk/needs analysis and those
identified as being at a moderate to high risk of recidivism are recommended to programs designed
to target their specific criminogenic need areas, with the goal of deterring future criminality.
Although it is known that the incarcerated population is comprised of men with multiple
criminogenic needs, the majority of this report examines the recidivism rate related to the
completion of the program associated with a single need area. The model of facilitation for
incarcerated men is designed to address one’s criminogenic need through corresponding
programming. Incarcerated women are assessed through a typology assessment and are further
delineated into one of four corresponding programming prescriptions termed Pathways. The
Pathway model is a holistic approach and allows MA DOC to provide evidence-based treatment
designed to address each woman’s criminogenic needs and streamline treatment services. The model
of facilitation addresses multiple need areas within one week of instruction, to include
comprehensive Pathway specific programming and academic or vocational services. To measure
success, recidivism rates are used to determine an incarcerated individual’s ability to abstain from
criminal behavior after release from prison.
How recidivism is conceptualized and how an incarcerated population is targeted can drastically
influence a reported recidivism rate. Commonly used definitions for recidivism include: the
recommitting of a crime; the reconviction of a crime; or the reincarceration to jail or prison after
release to the community following an incarceration.
For the purposes of this report, recidivism is based on criminally sentenced incarcerated individuals
released to the community via expiration of sentence or parole from January 1, 2017 – December 31,
2020, whose first release occurred during this time-period. Recidivism is defined as a reconviction
based on an arraignment occurring within one year from the date of an incarcerated individual’s
release to the community. Conviction types include a criminal sentence to a Massachusetts state or
county facility, a term of probation, a suspended sentence, a split sentence, a fine, or a guilty finding.