Title: Successful Job Placement For Ex-Offenders: The Center for Employment Opportunities.
Series: Program Focus
Author: Peter Finn
Subject: program evaluations, inmate vocational
training
Published: March 1998
41 pages
68,000 bytes

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U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice

Program Focus

National Institute of Justice
National Institute of Corrections
Office of Correctional Education

Successful Job Placement For Ex-Offenders: The
Center for Employment Opportunities

by Peter Finn

Many offenders have difficulty finding permanent,
unsubsidized, well-paid employment after release
because they lack job-seeking experience, a work
history, and occupational skills; furthermore,
many employers refuse to hire individuals with
criminal records. These circumstances seriously
affect an ex-offender's stability because
unemployment is consistently associated with high
recidivism rates.[1]

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) in
New York City attempts to overcome these barriers
by providing transitional services when
ex-offenders are at the most vulnerable stage of
their rehabilitation--immediately after release.
Most participants are newly released "boot camp"
inmates, although approximately one-third are on
work release, probation, or nonviolent parole
status. CEO seeks to foster the discipline they
have acquired while incarcerated. 

The program's most noteworthy transitional service
consists of day-labor work crews to which
participants are assigned 1 week after release.
The work crews, designed to prepare participants
for placement in a permanent job, offer several
advantages:

o--They provide participants with structure and
activity.

o--They instill good work habits.

o--They enable participants to earn a daily
income.

o--They test participants' readiness for placement
in a permanent job.

o--They generate income that helps cover day-labor
expenses.

The program's work crews have much in common with
the supported-work demonstrations initiated in the
late 1970s. While research failed to find that
these demonstrations had a lasting effect on
either employment status or recidivism (see
"Previous Supported-Work Initiatives"), CEO's
approach incorporates two essential features
missing from most of these earlier efforts:
providing intensive job placement services and
providing them early. 

The crews are only a means to achieving CEO's
ultimate mission: placing participants in
permanent, unsubsidized, full-time jobs that
provide benefits and above-minimum wages.[2] As
discussed below, CEO offers employers a number of
incentives for hiring program participants,
enabling the program to find jobs for as many as
70 percent of its ex-offenders.

The First Week: Recruitment, Orientation, and Life
Skills

The accompanying flow chart (exhibit 1) summarizes
the progression of CEO participants through the
program. The text below describes each major step.

Recruitment and Orientation

"When my work release counselor suggested I look
into CEO, I liked the idea because the work crews
would give me some money. So I went to the
orientation and decided to join."--A work crew
member

Most CEO participants are ex-offenders just
released from New York State's shock incarceration
(or boot camp) program who are required to enroll
as a condition of parole. The Parole Division also
requires some parolees released from a 3-month
residential substance abuse treatment program to
participate. Finally, CEO accepts voluntary
referrals from city probation officers and work
release counselors. The program does not accept
offenders who have been convicted of a violent
crime or who are ineligible to work in the United
States.

Program staff provide a 3-hour orientation at the
Parole Division to each new group of boot camp and
drug treatment graduates; probationers and work
release inmates are trained at CEO's offices.
Parolees are generally released on a Thursday,
oriented on Friday, and begin life skills classes
on Monday. The life skills classes run for 4 days
(through Thursday). On Thursday afternoon students
are oriented to the work crews. They meet their
employment specialist on the Friday after the life
skills class and start work the following Monday.

Life Skills Course

"I was afraid that my criminal history would
prevent me from ever getting a job, but my life
skills teacher trained us thoroughly about what to
write on job applications and what to say to
interviewers about our offenses."--An employed
program graduate

Participants spend the first of 4 days (Monday) at
CEO attending an all-day job readiness class.
Course work is based on a Columbia University
curriculum designed especially for
difficult-to-employ populations. According to
Yolanda Johnson, one of the instructors, "The most
important part of the course is the interview
training, and the most important part of that
segment is how participants can talk with job
interviewers about their criminal record in a
manner that diverts the conversation to what they
learned in boot camp and at CEO."

Support Services

"I got lots of help from CEO, not just help
finding a job. The program gave me free clothing
and the name of an agency that had still more
clothing to give away. My life skills teacher
helped me negotiate the foster care bureaucracy so
I could get back custody of my children. I was
even given a list of real estate agents and names
of people with vacant apartments."--An employed
program graduate

On the last day of the life skills course
(Thursday), the instructor discusses personal
problems participants may have that could
interfere with finding a job; participants fill
out a form identifying these problems and discuss
them in an exit interview. Life skills educators
also help participants secure child care, housing,
and clothing, as well as Medicaid documents, a
driver's license, and any other needed documents.
Staff visit participants at their job sites within
the first 90 days of employment, assessing
employer and employee satisfaction.

Transition: The Fifth Day

"The first time I met my employment specialist, he
was real up front about telling me he couldn't
place me in a job right away without a trial
period on the work crews to make sure I was really
ready for private-sector work."--An employed
program graduate

On the day following the end of the life skills
course (Friday), participants meet with their
employment specialist, who reviews their interests
and goals, barriers to employment, and other
personal information needed to develop an
employment plan. This information is documented in
an assessment tool approved by the New York City
Department of Employment. Each participant's
employment specialist then picks a day of the week
when, instead of working on a crew, the
participant will come to the office to pursue job
leads the employment specialist has developed
between meetings.

Work Crews

"The crew pays me only $30 a day, but I left
prison with just $100, so I really need the money.
Besides, it keeps me busy and not doing things
that could get me locked up again. And I know that
CEO has helped crew members find jobs."--A crew
member

Work crews provide participants with short-term,
low-skilled, minimum-wage, day-labor employment.
In mid-1996, 40 crews with a total of more than
200 participants were operating each day in more
than 25 locations in all 5 city boroughs. Crews
generally operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 4
p.m. to midnight, with an hour off for lunch or
dinner. Work crews give participants the following
benefits: 

o--Immediate, much-needed cash--and the
self-esteem that comes from not having to ask
family members for day-to-day living expenses.

o--Essential work habits for joining the
workforce, such as getting to work on time,
dressing appropriately, maintaining a positive
attitude, accepting constructive criticism from a
supervisor, and working 7 hours a day as a member
of a team.

o--An accurate sense of the demands they can
expect from employers.

The crews give the program the opportunity to
screen out participants who have shown repeatedly
that they are not motivated or disciplined enough
to succeed in the private sector. The program
terminates these participants. In addition, the
work crews offer their customers an array of
benefits, both tangible and intangible.

Reliability and quality work. Under CEO's close
supervision, crews show up on time, work steadily,
and do the job right. According to Kevin Curran,
director of crew operations, "Agencies that
initially resisted using the crews grew to like
them because they were well supervised and
dependable."

Flexibility and control. From one day to the next,
facility managers can shift crews to different
locations or types of work, increase or decrease
the number of crews, and discontinue them when a
job has been completed.

Easy access. Agencies that have avoided needed
maintenance work because of the contracting
process (typically months long) can have a crew in
place within a month--and often within a week.

Cost-effectiveness. Crews generally cost less than
$500 per five-person crew per day, including
labor, onsite supervision, and overhead. 

Giving people a second chance. According to one
facility manager, the crews have been a boon not
only because they do good work and save money, but
also because he gets personal satisfaction from
giving ex-offenders a second chance.

Managing the Work Crews

Work and pay. Crew members primarily perform
low-skilled tasks (such as trash pickup and
painting), rather than highly skilled work that
would require extensive training. Because crew
members are CEO employees, the program withholds
taxes and other deductibles from their paychecks.
In 1997, day-crew members earned nearly $36 for a
7-hour day ($5.15 per hour minimum-wage base pay);
night-crew members earned more than $40 ($5.79 per
hour base pay). Crew members are paid at the end
of each day to provide immediate spending money,
reinforce dependability, and promote their
self-esteem. Because few crew members have bank
accounts, CEO has arranged for several bank
branches and check-cashing establishments to honor
their checks.

Supervision. There are two levels of field
supervision: (1) individual onsite crew
supervisors and (2) senior field supervisors, who
oversee four to six individual crew supervisors.
While both levels of supervisors maintain work
crew discipline, crew supervisors have the primary
responsibility for training crew members.

Training. When a new work crew site is
established, a senior field supervisor meets with
the customer's facility manager to identify the
time and place the crew should assemble, the
nature of the crew's work, and the equipment and
safety gear needed for the job. The senior field
supervisor gives this information to the crew
supervisors, who then orient crew members to the
requirements of the job.

Orienting and training the crews is a never-ending
task, as new members replace those who find jobs,
drop out, or are terminated. As a result, crew
supervisors often team new crew members with
seasoned members who can show them the ropes. Crew
supervisors also match uncooperative members with
stable, experienced workers who can reinforce
positive work habits.

Maintaining discipline. Every crew supervisor
maintains line-of-sight supervision at all times
in order to enforce the rules (see "CEO's Rules
Foster Reliability"). Depending on how severe a
violation is and how often it occurs, crew
supervisors may warn members to stop their
behavior, send them home with their pay docked, or
fill out a report that will result in a
disciplinary hearing and possible termination.

Although crew supervisors have pagers for
contacting their senior field supervisors and
facility representatives, for the most part they
work independently. A daily visit by a senior
field supervisor exerts a stabilizing influence,
reassuring crew supervisors, crew members, and
facility managers alike that an observant
organization is holding everything together.

Senior field supervisors also help crew
supervisors solve onsite problems. For example,
Robert Gordon was paged by a crew supervisor when
a member of a highway cleaning crew found the
parts to a rifle and insisted on taking them to
the local police precinct station for a gun
buyback cash reward. Gordon drove to the site and
convinced the ex-offender that he did not want to
have his fingerprints all over the weapon or to be
seen carrying it down the street. In addition to
troubleshooting, senior supervisors help prevent
burnout among crew supervisors, who must fight the
same battles repeatedly as new crew members echo
the complaints of their predecessors (such as,
"Why do I have to work so hard for only $5.15 an
hour?"). Finally, senior field supervisors help
ensure that crew supervisors enforce the rules
evenhandedly so that crew members who move from
one crew to another experience the same
discipline.

Typical Work Crew Assignments

Buildings. Crews provide custodial services in
court buildings, stripping and waxing floors in
corridors and public areas, cleaning bathrooms,
emptying trash containers, dusting office
furniture, and washing walls. Crews prepare walls
and trim surfaces for painting, then paint
dormitories, classrooms, group homes, and
administrative offices. Crews reconfigure staff
offices, demolishing old walls and installing new
drywall partitions.

Highways. Crews clean up roadsides along piers and
State arterial roads, as well as along highways
and access roads that lead to John F. Kennedy
International Airport.

Parks. A crew routinely maintains nature trails
and recreational areas, cutting back overgrowth
and picking up debris. In warmer months, crew
members remove graffiti from outdoor park
fixtures, signs, and buildings.

Other exterior work. Crews have assembled concrete
block partitions and assisted with concrete
flatwork for sidewalks, ramps, and curb cuts for
handicapped access, including setting up forms,
installing expansion joints, and pouring concrete.
Crews also perform general groundskeeping,
including cutting lawns, maintaining wrought iron
fences, and beautifying entrances.

Challenges

Because looking after the work crews involves
constant attention and management, staff
constantly try to anticipate and solve problems.
Mindy Tarlow, CEO's executive director, says the
crews are the hardest component of CEO to manage
effectively.

Startup difficulties. Facility managers have to be
patient in expecting good results. According to
Arturo Santiago, the former first assistant
commissioner of the Department of Citywide
Administrative Services, who hired crews to
maintain several court buildings, "You have to
give the crews a chance. They can't turn a
building around in a day. Floors that haven't been
worked on for years can't look good overnight."
Santiago reports that he was prepared to wait 2 or
3 months to see whether the crews could do the
job. (See "Satisfied Work Crew Customers.")

Difficulties with crew members. Crew members gripe
most about the pay, and some express dislike for
the menial nature of the work. Few participants
quit, however, because boot camp has prepared most
of them for physically strenuous chores. Women
crew members--who represent about 9 percent of CEO
participants--often have an added incentive to
stick with the program: If they are mothers, they
need a job to demonstrate that they are stable
enough to win back custody of their children from
foster care.

Problems with facilities. Conflicts between
productivity and safety sometimes occur at
worksites. For example, having different members
of a crew painting simultaneously in several
classrooms at Brooklyn College had to be abandoned
because line-of-sight supervision was compromised.
When college administrators expressed concern
about ex-offenders' proximity to students, CEO
first changed the crews' lunch hours to prevent
their coinciding with the students' eating times,
then arranged to have the crews do the painting
from 4 p.m. to midnight. Another problem is that
crew members are often the first to be blamed when
something is stolen or missing from a facility.
Crew supervisors remind facility personnel that
crew members are closely supervised, making it
difficult for them to engage in illegal activity
on the job.

Maintaining crew size. Program staff struggle
constantly to ensure that crews are not
shortstaffed--15 to 20 percent of members fail to
show up each day, while others find jobs or are
disciplined or terminated. When Arturo Santiago
found that some crews cleaning his courts were
understaffed, he developed his own crew member
sign-in sheets; crew supervisors fax these to him
each morning and, if a crew is short, Santiago
telephones Mindy Tarlow to fill the gaps.

Fielding new crews. The program can respond
expeditiously to a new request for a crew if an
existing crew is finishing a project and can be
transferred to the new site. If an existing crew
is not available, CEO must find another crew
supervisor and expand its labor pool to form a
crew from scratch. For example, when CEO was
confronted with an unusually large number of
requests for crews during the summer of 1996,
Mindy Tarlow asked the Parole Division for 50
additional ex-offenders; CEO could not provide job
placement services for these individuals, but it
could offer them work crew employment. Kevin
Curran, who supervises crew operations, maintains
a core of 10 reliable supervisors who want
overtime and who can fill in for other supervisors
who get sick or go on vacation. Furthermore,
Curran says, "Even when facing a month's delay,
customers have never said they cannot wait that
long, because a month is a blink of an eye
compared to the half-year contracting process the
facility would otherwise have to endure." 

Union concerns. Opposition to the crews from
organized labor has not been a serious problem.
When concerns have been raised, facility managers
have solved the problem either by informing union
representatives that the crew is supplementing the
union work by doing the less desirable low-skilled
preparation labor or by moving CEO's crews to a
different location until the union job is done.

Job Development and Placement

"My employment specialist had a job interview
lined up for me almost every time I came in on my
off day. And he would remind me again and again
about how to act and what to say. On about my
fifth interview I was hired, and I've been there
ever since."--An employed CEO graduate

Until they have landed a full-time job, crew
members return one day a week to the CEO office
dressed for job interviews their employment
specialists may have scheduled. If no interviews
have been set up, the specialist may try to
schedule one during the meeting or spend the time
working with the participant on job readiness
skills.

Selling the Program to Employers

Program staff and company executives who have
hired CEO participants agree that CEO's most
successful marketing strategy consists of three
interrelated selling points:

o--CEO acts as a human resources department,
screening applicants for its customers: Employers
know nothing about someone who comes in off the
street, but with CEO they know each applicant's
background.

o--CEO provides employees who are almost always
reliable: They will show up on time every day,
ready to work.

o--An entire organization is behind every
employee: CEO is just a phone call away. If
employers have a problem, CEO will solve it. CEO
monitors every employee's performance for 6 months
with site visits and phone calls. Employers are
also reassured to learn that most participants are
also under supervision by a parole officer.

Also, the program's services are free. According
to Tani Mills, who runs CEO's vocational
development activities, "No-cost human resource
services do matter to many employers. So our
employment specialists may start out by telling
employers how much money they'll save by not
having to place an ad in the paper or pay an
employment agency." The program also offers
employers other incentives.

On-the-job training and Adult Work Experience
credits. Through the New York City Department of
Employment, the program can offer wage
reimbursement to employers under the Department of
Labor's Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). The
on-the-job training component offers to reimburse
for-profit companies half of a participant's wages
for up to 8 weeks if the company qualifies under
JTPA regulations, is willing to train a person,
and considers the person a full-time employee with
the same benefit plan its regular employees
receive. The Adult Work Experience component
allows CEO to reimburse nonprofit companies 100
percent of the minimum wage for providing 12 weeks
of training.

Work Opportunities Tax Credit. For many years,
this program was able to arrange tax credits for
employers under the Targeted Job Tax Credit Act.
This program was replaced in 1996 by the Revenue
Reconciliation Act, which offers special
consideration to employers if their operation and
the prospective employee's residence are in a
designated Empowerment Zone. The employer is
eligible for a Work Opportunities Tax Credit equal
to 35 percent of the first $6,000 of wages
($2,100) if the employee has worked at least 180
days. In addition, the program provides employers
information and brochures outlining the benefits
available under the act for businesses in
Empowerment Zones.[3]

Human resources services. Although CEO has placed
some participants with big corporations, according
to Tani Mills, "We have found a niche with small
and medium-sized companies: Large companies have
their own human resource departments, so they
don't need CEO so much. Also, it takes more time
to develop a relationship with big companies than
with smaller ones. Besides, many participants
can't handle the anonymity of a big company." A
senior employment specialist adds that "big
companies tend to have higher standards for
applicants, a longer hiring process, and greater
reluctance to hire ex-offenders than smaller
companies."

For example, one shop owner with 35 employees
reports, "I said I would never hire a convict.
Then a CEO representative called me because one of
my customers had hired a CEO participant and told
the program about me. The CEO person told me that
they screen these people, offer money for me to
train them, and CEO and the parole board both
monitor them. If there's a problem, they'll find
it out and either solve it or get the person out.
I don't have a human resources department to
screen people, and with a newspaper ad you never
know what kind of person you're getting. So I
interviewed a few [participants], hired one, and
it worked out fine."

In addition to filling a role as an employment
agency, CEO offers Employee Assistance Program
(EAP) services to any employee of a company that
hires at least one CEO participant. When Edward
Parrott, a senior employment specialist, called a
company as part of routine postplacement followup,
the owner asked about how to deal with a non-CEO
employee who appeared to have a drug problem. At
Parrott's suggestion, the owner told the employee
to telephone Parrott or face termination. Parrott
then arranged for the employee to enter a
rehabilitation program, assuring him that his
employer would hire him back if he successfully
completed treatment--which is exactly what
happened.

Followup

"When I got a job, everyone at CEO said to call if
I ever needed anything. I still call after 3
years."--An employed program graduate

After placing a participant, the employment
specialist telephones the employer to confirm the
placement, express CEO's pleasure to be working
with the company, and reaffirm the offer of
ongoing assistance. An employment specialist
supervisor also calls to make sure employers know
that the participants are ex-offenders, thank
them, ask if they need any more workers, and tell
them to contact her if they have a problem and
cannot reach the employment specialist.

The program continues to monitor the employee's
performance for 6 months, including telephoning
the employer, visiting the work site, and
counseling the employee. The program's
computerized case-tracking system produces monthly
reports that indicate when followup contacts are
due in order to verify that participants are still
employed, ascertain their progress, and offer any
needed assistance. One company executive reported,
"The employment specialist really monitors these
guys. He calls the employees, and he calls me to
see how things are working out. That's very
important to me. With an employment agency, they
place someone and they're out of it. Six months go
by and CEO is still checking up on these guys."
The program offers job development and support
services indefinitely, including help with finding
new jobs for former participants who lose their
jobs due to layoffs or other factors beyond their
control.

CEO Staffing

While any program is only as good as its
personnel, staff quality is particularly important
at CEO because of the complexity of marketing and
operating the work crews and the need to meet job
development goals established by funding agencies.
As the organization chart (exhibit 2) shows, in
1996 CEO employees included 36 crew supervisors
and 6 senior field supervisors; 10 employment
specialists and 2 supervisors; 4 life skills
educators, who also provided support services; and
executive and administrative staff.

Certain features of CEO's staffing arrangements
are noteworthy.

o--The program is especially receptive to hiring
former participants, who can be open about their
background and often have a strong desire to help
other ex-offenders. However, program participants
must first work 6 to 12 months in the private
sector to demonstrate their reliability and to
build a work history outside CEO.

o--To minimize turnover among experienced crew
supervisors, CEO rewards longevity among these
staff members with extra pay.

o--Employment specialists must meet work quotas
designed to stimulate productivity (see
"Employment Specialists Are Expected to Meet
Performance Quotas").

CEO Finances

Program revenues in Fiscal Year (FY) 1996 totaled
$7.4 million and came from several sources. Work
crews generate approximately 60 percent of CEO's
total funding. This income supports a significant
part of CEO's work crew operation. Funding for
vocational development services (such as life
skills training, support services, job counseling,
and the youth program) comes from several sources,
including the following:

o--State Division of Parole.

o--State Department of Correctional Services.

o--City Department of Probation for adult and
youth programs.

o--City Department of Employment JTPA funding for
the on-the-job training and Adult Work Experience
placements.

With the exception of the City Department of
Housing Preservation and Development, which
contracts for work crews directly with CEO,
agencies pay the Parole Division for the program's
work crew services, and the Parole Division
reimburses CEO. Under this arrangement, CEO is the
Parole Division's managing agent for the crews,
and CEO avoids becoming a bill collector. 

The Parole Division contracts separately with CEO
for job development services. The contract
requires the program to enroll 1,150 ex-offenders.
The program contracts with the City Department of
Employment--the local distributor of Federal job
training funds--to reimburse companies that
provide on-the-job training and Adult Work
Experience placements to program participants.

The program's income in FY 1996 included $1.8
million from Government agencies for vocational
development (life skills classes and job placement
services) and $5.6 million from customers who
hired work crews. In 1996, CEO covered all but
$416,000 of its work crew expenses with revenue
from work crew customers. CEO expects the work
crews to become completely self-supporting. As a
result, when calculating CEO's cost to taxpayers,
it is necessary to add only the unreimbursed cost
of the work crews ($416,000) to the cost of
vocational development activities ($1.9 million)
for a total cost of $2,316,800. Based on the
historical average of 766 placements, the cost per
placement to the taxpayer is $3,025.

More than one-quarter of CEO's FY 1996 expenses
($7.4 million) were allocated to participants'
wages and expenses (such as subway tokens and
workboots). Support services--including vehicles,
classroom space, and staff salaries for job
counseling and training--accounted for about 60
percent of program costs. The balance of the
expenses (less than 13 percent) was incurred by
program administration, legal counsel, and
bookkeeping functions.

Promising Signs of Success

"That's the good thing about coming here. They
really help you."--A participant talking to a
newcomer in the CEO waiting room

The primary goal of CEO is to reintegrate
ex-offenders into the community by helping them
find employment in unsubsidized, permanent jobs
that pay more than minimum wage and offer growth
potential and benefits. Between 1992 and 1996, the
program placed an average of 766 participants in
permanent jobs each year, for an average annual
placement rate of approximately 70 percent. The
remaining 30 percent dropped out of the program at
different stages:

o--Five percent of all program participants failed
to show up for the first day of program
activities.

o--Fifteen percent dropped out of life skills
classes.

o--Five percent never showed up for the first day
of crew work.

o-- Five percent were terminated for failing to
follow work crew rules. 

According to executive director Mindy Tarlow, the
first 30 days are the critical time for sticking
with the program; after participants are working
with an employment specialist, they tend to remain
with the program until they find a job.

At a time when the minimum wage was $4.25 an hour,
the average hourly wage for CEO participants who
were placed between 1992 and 1996 ranged from
$4.25 to $20. In 1996, their average wage was
nearly 50 percent higher than the minimum wage,
representing almost $4,000 in earned income above
the minimum wage over the course of the year.
Nearly two-thirds of the jobs provided full
benefits.

In 1996, approximately 75 percent of placed
participants were still on the same job after 1
month, 60 percent were still employed after 3
months, and 38 percent after 6 months. Many remain
much longer. For example, among 12 participants
one local business had hired over a 3-year period,
"more worked out than didn't," according to the
owner. "One stayed 21/2 years, two for 11/2 years,
a couple for 1 year." The most common reason for
becoming unemployed is drug relapse, despite CEO's
availability to refer any employed former
participant to treatment.

The success of CEO's work crews has inspired the
agency to adapt their principles to a program
encouraging young offenders to stay in school (see
"Young Probationers' Program").

Keys to Program Success

According to Christopher Stone, the executive
director of the Vera Institute of Justice who
supervised CEO's spinoff as an independent
organization (see "CEO's Origins"), "Any
postprison agency responsible for reducing
recidivism can set up work crews in conjunction
with vocational development services." However,
there are several keys to the success of a program
like CEO:

o--A local criminal justice system agency--
preferably a division of parole or probation--must
become a program partner to ensure an adequate
supply of participants. These agencies are likely
to find the guarantee of immediate, paid work for
all their referrals extremely attractive,
especially when alternative job programs cannot
promise quick employment; fail to provide the
structure, discipline, and followup that help
offenders secure above-minimum-wage work; and may
require participants to apply for welfare.

o--Times of fiscal crisis can work to the
advantage of a program like CEO, because
governments may be more willing to take
cost-cutting measures--such as releasing inmates
early with assurances of appropriate supervision.

o--Engaging participants in day labor is essential
to keeping them motivated and out of trouble.
Income from the work crews also supports day-labor
operations. However, being able to establish work
crews may depend on the political will of
government partners and local community
representatives (see "How CEO Finds Work Crew
Customers").

o--Hiring competent operations staff, such as crew
supervisors and senior field supervisors, is
critical. Local market demand for individuals with
the proper blend of skills and personality can
hamper a program's ability to recruit and retain
them. The program must also hire detail-oriented
administrative staff (see "CEO's Communications
Hub: The Data Department"). According to Mindy
Tarlow, "Organizations tend to rely on only one or
two compulsive people for this work, but that's
not a good idea when you're deploying work crews
and tracking hundreds of participants--things can
fall apart quickly when these staff get sick, go
on vacation, become overworked, or begin to resent
other administrative staff who are not so
conscientious."

o--The program must incorporate and enforce
structure and discipline. The program should
enroll ex-offenders who have already developed
some self-discipline, building on this habit until
the participants respond to incentives for staying
straight: immediate daily income, the prospect of
a permanent job, and the rewards of full-time
employment with fringe benefits. According to
Christopher Stone, "Any regime in the department
of corrections with a disciplined system can be an
appropriate source of participants, including
therapeutic community graduates and work release
inmates--two populations CEO has successfully
placed."

Tarlow recommends that new programs begin by
establishing an administrative structure, putting
a referral mechanism and an orientation process in
place, and soliciting work crew funding--all
before establishing job development and
preemployment training services. "Getting
permanent jobs is the program's goal," she notes,
"but the work crew component is essential to
getting there, and it is the most difficult
component to get going and keep afloat." A new
program should begin small in order to learn how
to handle the daily work crew payroll. "A daily
payroll for 10 crew members is not a problem, but
paying 200 participants at numerous locations 250
days a year takes planning and development."
Tarlow concludes, "It is absolutely critical to
have a sound financial administrative structure
and a strong financial officer."

To help ensure a consistent level of crew
employment, CEO now tries to negotiate a verbal
2-year commitment from every crew employer. CEO
also tries not to have too many crews working for
only one customer and not to rely on one source of
participants; diversification is the key to
minimizing peaks and valleys, both in work demand
and in available labor to meet the demand.

o--Finally, all such programs need to incorporate
an evaluation plan that tracks how long
participants remain employed and whether they are
less likely to commit new offenses than
ex-offenders who do not participate in the
program. These outcome data can be crucial to
persuading funding sources to continue to support the 
program, as well as for identifying areas of program 
operation that need improvement.

CEO had the advantage of the Vera Institute's
support in becoming established, and it became
independent only after achieving a sound structure
and secure funding. Even so, Vera faced most of
the same financial hurdles that organizations in
other jurisdictions would have to overcome in
starting such a program, such as gaining
government support and paying work crew customers.
Although the Vera Institute learned how to proceed
largely by trial and error, other jurisdictions
that wish to replicate the program have the
advantage of learning from CEO's experience.

Notes

1.--Anderson, D.B., R.E. Schumacker, and S.L.
Anderson, "Release Characteristics and Parole,"
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 17(1991): 133-
145.

2. --Strictly speaking, employers who take
advantage of the wage reimbursement under the Job
Training Partnership Act and the Work
Opportunities Tax Credit do receive subsidies.
However, most employers who hire CEO participants
do not avail themselves of these programs, and
those that do usually use them only temporarily.

3. --The Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community
program is designed to rebuild communities in
inner cities and rural areas. It includes block
grants and tax benefits to stimulate the creation
of new jobs and to revitalize economically
distressed areas. The Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development designates urban Empowerment
Zones and Enterprise Communities, and the
Secretary of Agriculture designates them in rural
areas.

-------------------------------

Highlights

Many newly released offenders have difficulty
reintegrating into society. The Center for
Employment Opportunities (CEO) in New York City is
one of many programs that help ex-offenders
prepare for, find, and keep jobs. CEO's program is
unique because it provides day labor for
participants, most of whom have been released only
the previous week from boot camp. In addition to
enabling the participants to earn a daily income,
the work crews help the participants structure
their lives and develop good work habits. The work
crews also generate revenue that covers direct
day-labor expenses.

The work crews are a short-term means of achieving
CEO's overall mission: placing ex-offenders in
permanent, unsubsidized, full-time jobs that
provide benefits and compensation above minimum
wage. Distinctive features of CEO include the
following:

o--A set of consistently enforced rules builds on
and sustains the self-discipline and self-esteem
most participants have developed in boot camp;
these rules also foster the reliability that
employers value most in hiring CEO participants.

o--The program acts as a free human resources
department to employers by screening participants
for suitability and by serving as an employee
assistance program, offering help with such
problems as substance abuse to any of the
employers' workers--not just CEO graduates.

o--The program pays for half of employees' wages
for 8 weeks or more through the Federal Job
Training Partnership Act if specific criteria are
met.

o--Program employment specialists help employers
obtain any available job tax credits.

The program helps about 70 percent of its
participants find full-time employment within 2 to
3 months, with most jobs paying more than minimum
wage and providing fringe benefits. Staff offer
ongoing services to all placed participants for at
least 6 months after placement. Approximately
three-fourths of participants placed are still
employed at the same job after 1 month and of
these about half are still working at that job
after 6 months.

-------------------------------

Three Agencies Collaborate on Successful Job
Placement Programs for Ex-Offenders

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the
National Institute of Corrections (NIC), and the
U.S. Department of Education's Office of
Correctional Education (OCE) have cooperated on a
number of projects addressing the needs of
released offenders. This Program Focus describes
one of these continuing efforts. It is one in a
series of publications produced by NIJ, NIC, and
OCE focusing on various approaches to offender job
training, placement, and retention.

Much has been accomplished since our agencies
formed a partnership to document the results of
offender job training and placement efforts and to
disseminate the information to corrections
professionals and policymakers. 

NIC's Office of Correctional Job Training and
Placement has developed a curriculum for offender
job development specialists. By the summer of
1997, two classes had been delivered at NIC's
Longmont Training Academy. Both classes were
oversubscribed, indicating the intense interest
that correctional administrators have in this
subject.

OCE, in cooperation with the Home Builders
Institute, has begun developing a guide to educate
the building industry about offender job placement
and retention. Although the guide focuses on the
residential building industry, representatives of
any industry will find its information and
examples useful.

In the fall of 1996, NIJ sponsored a national
conference, "It's Our Business: A National
Corporate Symposium in Investment in Criminal
Justice Solutions." The conference was a success,
and many industry representatives have since
sought NIJ assistance in forming partnerships with
criminal justice agencies.

In December 1996, NIJ published the findings from
two NIJ-funded evaluations of Washington State's
work release program, which were conducted between
1991 and 1994. The first study analyzed a cohort
of 2,452 males released from Washington prisons in
1990--nearly 40 percent of whom spent part of
their sentences on work release--to measure how
successfully inmates performed in the program. The
second compared the recidivism of 218 offenders,
half of whom participated in the work release
program and half of whom completed their sentences
in prison.

Our agencies' latest joint publication, "Project
Re-Enterprise: A Texas Program," highlighted a
program designed to help offenders sharpen their
interview and jobseeking skills prior to release.
As part of this informal education program, more
than 350 Texas employers attend a mock job fair at
least once a year. Since publication of that
bulletin, we have helped both the Georgia
Department of Children and Youth Services and the
Maryland Division of Corrections successfully
replicate the mock job fair concept in their
jurisdictions on a limited basis.

Our agencies are now working with a newly formed
office within the Federal Bureau of Prisons
dedicated to job placement for Federal offenders.
The establishment of this office is yet another
indication of the importance that corrections
professionals place on offender job training and
placement.

As we develop further strategies for joint action,
staff from our agencies will continue to seek
advice from corrections professionals and
policymakers. Together, we will strive to develop
successful programs that can be replicated
throughout the field.

Jeremy Travis
Director
National Institute of Justice

Morris Thigpen
Director
National Institute of Corrections

Richard Smith
Director
Office of Correctional Education

-------------------------------

Previous Supported-Work Initiatives

Government programs to bring ex-offenders into the
labor market began with the passage of the
Manpower Demonstration and Training Act of 1962
and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. These
acts led to the creation of hundreds of employment
and training programs for offenders and
ex-offenders. However, shortcomings in the
research methods used to evaluate these programs
made it difficult to conclude that the efforts
improved employment or reduced recidivism among
ex-offenders.

During the 1970s, more controlled experiments of
ex-offender employment programs were undertaken,
especially the supported-work demonstrations
implemented by the Manpower Demonstration Research
Corporation (MDRC). These studies generally failed
to prove that such projects improved participants'
employment or earnings or reduced their
recidivism, with one exception. A 1972 study
conducted by the Vera Institute of Justice,
located in New York City, evaluated work crews for
chronically unemployed ex-offenders and former
heroin addicts. The model involved closely
supervised employment on work crews consisting
entirely of employees at the Wildcat Services
Corporation. Wages were subsidized; participants
did real work but were sheltered from the full
demands of the workplace; stress was gradually
increased; and counseling was available after
hours if needed. Vera researchers randomly
assigned ex-offenders to a test group that
participated in the Wildcat program or to a
control group that received no assistance. Program
participation increased ex-offenders' stability
and earning capacity significantly during the
3-year followup period; however, while
participants were arrested less often than the
control group during the first year, by the end of
the third year the difference in recidivism had
evaporated.[a] Further study is needed to
determine whether the difference evaporated
because recidivism among participants had
increased or because recidivism among the control
group had decreased.

A review of labor markets and crime risk factors
found that "even after 30 years of trying, . . .
no program--in-prison training, transitional
assistance (both in-kind and monetary assistance),
or pretrial diversion--has consistently shown
itself capable (through a rigorous random
assignment evaluation) of decreasing recidivism
through labor market-oriented programs, inside or
outside of prison." However, the review observes
that "the intuition of . . . [postrelease
transitional income supplement] programs is still
valid. . . . Ex-offenders with jobs commit fewer
crimes than ex-offenders without jobs, and those
with higher earnings commit fewer crimes than
those with lower earnings."[b]

Supporting this intuition, a 1992 study of Project
RIO--a statewide program run by the Texas
Workforce Commission that provides job placement
services to more than 15,000 parolees each year--
found that after 1 year, 69 percent of program
participants had secured employment, compared with
only 36 percent of a group of parolees who did not
enroll in Project RIO. Furthermore, during the
year after release, 48 percent of high-risk RIO
participants were rearrested, compared with 57
percent of nonparticipating high-risk parolees; 23
percent of the RIO participants were
reincarcerated, compared with 38 percent of
nonparticipants. Although parolees in the study
were not assigned randomly to control and
treatment groups, the two groups of ex-offenders
studied had similar demographic characteristics
and risks of reoffending.[c]

Notes

a.  See Friedman, L.N., The Wildcat Evaluation: An
Early Test of Supported Work in Drug Abuse
Rehabilitation, Rockville, Maryland: National
Institute on Drug Abuse, 1978.

b. Bushway, S., and P. Reuter. "Labor Markets and
Crime Risk Factors." Chapter 6 in L.S. Sherman, D.
Gottfredson, D. MacKenzie, J. Eck, P. Reuter, and
S. Bushway, Preventing Crime: What Works, What
Doesn't, What's Promising (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,
1997), pp. 6-17.

c.  Menon, R., C. Blakely, D. Carmichael, and L.
Silver, "An Evaluation of Project RIO Outcomes: An
Evaluative Report," College Station: Texas A&M
University, Public Policy Resources Laboratory,
July 1992.

-------------------------------

CEO's Rules Foster Reliability

Although most CEO participants come directly from
the State's 6-month shock incarceration program
and are, therefore, more self-disciplined than
most other ex-offenders, many still have problems
managing their time, controlling their anger, and
participating on teams. As a result, in order to
prepare them for a successful transition to the
community and the job market, CEO requires strict
adherence to the program's requirements and work
schedule.

The rules are intended to instill the
accountability that will make participants
desirable job applicants and successful employees-
-CEO staff report that reliability is the single
most important characteristic companies look for
in their employees. The rules also give CEO staff
clear guidelines for responding to participants'
attempts to avoid responsibility, such as claiming
they were late because they missed the bus or the
subway broke down. 

o--Punctuality. Participants are given two
additional opportunities to complete the life
skills classes in the event that they are late or
miss class. They must take the entire 4-day course
over again. Paychecks are docked for workers who
are not punctual in reporting to their worksites.

o--Dress code. Participants are required to wear
outfits appropriate for job interviews when
meeting with employment specialists. Ostentatious
jewelry is discouraged, and Walkmans  and cellular
phones are not allowed on CEO's premises.

o--Work crew rules. Crew supervisors complete a
form at the end of each day, rating (from 1 to 4)
each individual's time on the job, punctuality,
motivation, cooperation, and productivity. Crew
members are discouraged from interacting with the
public and are required to conduct themselves in a
businesslike manner at all times.

o--Disciplinary procedures. Participants who
commit major violations (e.g., stealing or
threatening or assaulting staff or each other) or
who turn down an appropriate job offer are
terminated. For less serious violations (e.g.,
tardiness, absence, or reporting for the work crew
without appropriate gear), participants receive a
verbal reprimand the first time, sign a copy of
the rules the second time, and attend a
disciplinary meeting the third time, which may
result in termination. This three-step procedure
attempts to uncover the reasons for the behavior
in order to solve the problem. According to the
supervisor of the employment specialists, "If it's
a problem that can be fixed, we try to keep the
participant in the program."

Employment Specialists Are Expected to Meet
Performance Quotas

Every week, each employment specialist is expected
to make at least 100 cold calls to potential
employers, develop 5 to 10 job openings, and make
18 referrals for interviews. These efforts should
result in eight placements per month. Employment
specialists submit a weekly activity report to
CEO's director of vocational development and to
the supervising employment specialists. The report
includes a record of job orders by company name,
position, wage, and date. If an employment
specialist is not meeting the quotas, the
supervising specialist or the vocational
development director works with the person to
identify and solve the problem; for example, the
employment specialist may need help balancing time
spent counseling participants with time spent
calling potential employers.

Quotas were instituted in the early 1990s when
CEO's Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) funding
changed from discretionary funding to
performance-based contracting. Funds under JTPA
were provided to CEO up front, but, if the program
did not meet specified contract milestones, a
portion of the money had to be returned. As a
result, quotas to ensure productivity became
critical to CEO's survival. Although the funding
has reverted to discretionary funding, the quotas
have been kept in place for management purposes.
According to one senior employment specialist,
"The quotas are very effective as self-evaluation
tools and for pinpointing problem areas." 

-------------------------------

Young Probationers' Program

Until 1995, the City Department of Employment
funded CEO to run a school-to-work program for
young adults. When funding was terminated, CEO
refinanced the program through the Department of
Probation. The program helps probationers between
the ages of 151/2 and 18 resolve academic and
personal difficulties that interfere with staying
in school. 

The young probationers' program offers a 7-week
life skills course, individual counseling
(provided by CEO staff) and tutoring (provided by
volunteers), advocates in the schools for students
in disciplinary difficulties, assistance to
parents through home visits or lunchtime meetings,
and part-time paid summer internships. To motivate
school attendance, after the probationers complete
the life skills course, employment specialists
help students find part-time jobs after school or
on weekends; they are allowed to keep these jobs
only if they remain in school. According to Alba
Rivera, director of the youth program, "These
youngsters need a place where they feel accepted
and are cared about--like a second home--and where
someone is always available to them."

Fifty students were enrolled in the youth program
as of mid-1996. School attendance had risen from
49 percent to 81 percent for most of the 27
students who remained active in the program.

-------------------------------

CEO's Origins

In 1978, the Vera Institute of Justice, a
nonprofit organization in New York City,
established what later became the Center for
Employment Opportunities (CEO). One of Vera's
primary missions is to initiate innovative
criminal justice demonstration projects. It
disbands those projects that do not prove
effective and seeks to spin off successful
programs so that they continue as independent
organizations. When CEO became independent in
1996, it retained most of its original structure
and staff.

The Vera Institute established the program because
many newly released offenders were being
rearrested, usually for petty property offenses.
At the same time, it appeared that offenders who
were able to stay straight were finding day-labor
jobs in their own neighborhoods. As a result, Vera
decided to develop work crews that could offer
day-labor employment in neighborhoods where
offenders were living. 

Initially, ex-offenders participated voluntarily
in the crews after referral by probation or parole
officers. The crews were not expected to lead to
permanent employment. As it became clear that work
crew members wanted better jobs and that social
problems--such as lack of health insurance and
housing--made it difficult for many of them to
find and keep good jobs, Vera added vocational
development services. These two components--work
crews and vocational services--developed and
operated in tandem, but the crews which were not
expected to lead to permanent employment remained
the program's primary focus.

Over time, the program's goal evolved into helping
ex-offenders obtain permanent, unsubsidized,
higher paying employment. The work crews were seen
as indispensable to achieving this objective. The
nature of the ex-offenders' participation also
changed: When the State Parole Division began
referring primarily boot camp graduates,
participating in CEO became a mandatory condition
of release.

-------------------------------

How CEO Finds Work Crew Customers

Competitive bids. The program has secured some
customers through a competitive bidding process.
In 1981, the City Department of Housing
Preservation and Development (HPD) issued a
request for proposals to rehabilitate low-income
housing seized in tax foreclosures. CEO was one of
the successful bidders, becoming HPD's principal
contractor for crew operations. In 1995, CEO
responded to another HPD request for proposals
seeking supported-work contractors. As one of
three successful bidders, CEO won a 3-year
contract to provide four work crews.

State Government support. When New York State
established its shock incarceration program in the
late 1980s to relieve prison crowding and reduce
the need for new prison construction, it needed a
way to provide released "shockers" with immediate
employment, because holding a job was a
requirement for release. The Parole Division
expected to use CEO's work crews for this purpose
because the program could guarantee paying jobs
for participants right away. However, when CEO
lost its major contract with HPD, the number of
crews needed fell sharply (from nearly 50 to 5),
leaving the Parole Division in the lurch. As a
result, the director of the Parole Division and
the Governor's representatives met with the heads
of other State agencies to seek support for CEO's
work crews. It took 4 years for CEO to build back
up to more than 40 crews.

Good performance. Creating satisfied customers is
another way CEO has gained (and kept) contracts. A
good track record can be used to secure additional
work, and customers who initially agree to
experiment with crews renew or expand their
contracts. Crews often come to be considered a
permanent supplement to a customer's maintenance
operation.

-------------------------------

CEO's Communications Hub: The Data Department

Crew operations require constant adjustment due to
changes in scheduling, attendance, and
assignments. As a result, the atmosphere in CEO's
data department resembles a war room, with
computers, telephones, and fax machines in
constant use. Staff respond to minor--and
occasionally major--crises all day long. The data
department performs three principal functions,
described below.

Preparing the day's payroll. Crew supervisors call
in (or fax) their attendance lists to the data
department before 10 a.m. every day. Data
department staff confirm site attendance and hours
worked, then enter this information by participant
ID number into CEO's integrated computer system,
which digitally transfers it to the payroll
department for processing. The payroll manager
monitors the automatic check-printing system,
which addresses and sorts each participant's pay
by site. Payroll staff then bundle the checks for
distribution to all of CEO's crew sites before the
day's closing. (Night shift crews get paid the
following day.)

Scheduling the crews. Every afternoon, the data
department fields phone calls from participants
seeking assignment to a work crew for the
following day. The computer system identifies
vacant slots from the morning's payroll processing
and indicates each site's exact scheduling needs.
In this way, the data department can distribute
participants evenly across CEO's many work crews,
ensuring that each crew generally operates at
maximum capacity. Data department staff offer
precise travel instructions to new participants
(or to other participants when a work location
changes). When CEO's evening crews are
undersupported, data department staff offer
overtime to fill the shortages until more
participants are enrolled.

Supervising equipment. Most of CEO's customers
manage and store their own equipment and supplies
in the facilities where crews work. Customers
quickly recognized that if they maintained control
of the materials and supplies for the crews, they
could maximize the crews' flexibility and
responsiveness to the changing demands of their
facilities. The program does, however, manage and
warehouse tools, equipment, and supplies for the
four itinerant crews that provide services to New
York City's Department of Housing Preservation and
Development (HPD). Each afternoon, data department
staff use CEO's automated inventory system to
prepare shipping documents based on the needs
reported by the HPD supervisors. These documents
are faxed to the CEO warehouse; the next morning,
warehouse staff pull and deliver these orders to
supervisors.

-------------------------------

About This Study

This document was written by Peter Finn, senior
research associate at Abt Associates Inc. The
findings and conclusions of the research reported
here are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the official position or
policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

-------------------------------

The National Institute of Justice is a component
of the Office of Justice Programs, which also
includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and
the Office for Victims of Crime.

The National Institute of Corrections is a
component of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Office of Correctional Education is a division
of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education,
U.S. Department of Education.

-------------------------------

Selected NIJ Publications in Corrections and
Related Fields

Listed below are some NIJ publications related to
the issues discussed in this Program Focus. These
publications can be obtained free from the NIJ Web
page (http:www.ojp.usdoj. gov/nij) or from the
National 

Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS):
telephone 800-851-3420, e-mail askncjrs@ncjrs.org,
or write to NCJRS, Box 6000, Rockville, MD 20849-
6000.

Please note that when free publications are out of
stock, they are available as photocopies for a
minimal fee or through interlibrary loan. Call
NCJRS for more information.

Bourque, Blair B., Mei Han, and Sarah M. Hill, An
Inventory of Aftercare Provisions for 52 Boot Camp
Programs, Research Report, 1996, NCJ 157104.

Finn, Peter, The Orange County, Florida, Jail
Educational and Vocational Programs, Program
Focus, 1997, NCJ 166820.

McGillis, Daniel, Beacons of Hope: New York City's
School-Based Community Centers, Program Focus,
1996, NCJ 157667.

Moses, Marilyn, Project Re-Enterprise: A Texas
Program, Program Focus, 1996, NCJ 161448.

Sexton, George E., Work in American Prisons: Joint
Ventures with the Private Sector, Program Focus,
1996, NCJ 156215.

Sherman, Lawrence, Denise Gottfredson, Doris
MacKenzie, 

John Eck, Peter Reuter, and Shawn Bushway,
Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's
Promising, Research Report, 1997, NCJ 165366.

Turner, Susan, and Joan Petersilia, Work Release:
Recidivism and Corrections Costs in Washington
State, Research in Brief, 1996, NCJ 163706.

-------------------------------

Sources for Further Information

The program staff of the Center for Employment
Opportunities are available to provide technical
assistance and consultation. For further
information, contact: 

Mindy Tarlow
Executive Director
Center for Employment Opportunities
32 Broadway
New York, NY 10004
Telephone: 212-422-4850
Fax: 212-422-4855

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the
principal research, evaluation, and development
agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. For
information about the NIJ's efforts in
corrections, program development, and corporate
partnership development, contact: 

Marilyn C. Moses
Program Manager
National Institute of Justice
810 Seventh Street N.W., Room 7114
Washington, DC 20531
Telephone: 202-514-6205
Fax: 202-307-6256

World Wide Web site: 
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij 

The National Institute of Justice established the
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
(NCJRS) in 1972 to serve as a national and
international clearinghouse for the exchange of
criminal justice information. For more information
about topical searches, bibliographies, custom
searches, and other available services, contact: 

NCJRS
P.O. Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849-6000
Telephone: 800-851-3420 (8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Eastern time, Monday through Friday) 

For specific criminal justice questions or
requests via Internet, e-mail: 

askncjrs@ncjrs.org 

The Office of Correctional Education (OCE) within
the U.S. Department of Education was created by
Congress in 1991 to provide technical assistance,
grant funding, and research data to the
corrections and correctional education fields. To
speak with a program specialist or be placed on
OCE's mailing list to receive grant announcements,
OCE's quarterly newsletter, and other
publications, contact: 

Richard Smith
Director
Office of Correctional Education
U.S. Department of Education
600 Independence Avenue S.W.
MES 4529
Washington, DC 20202-7242
Telephone: 202-205-5621
Fax: 202-401-2615 

World Wide Web site:
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/OCE 

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC)
Information Center is a national clearinghouse for
collecting and disseminating information on all
aspects of adult corrections. Most of the NIC
Information Center's collection of more than
14,000 titles is oriented to the corrections
practitioner. For more information, contact:

NIC Information Center
1860 Industrial Circle, Suite A
Longmont, CO 80501
Telephone: 800-877-1461
Fax: 303-682-0558
http://www.bop.gov/nicpg/nicinfo.html 

The National Institute of Corrections' Office of
Correctional Job Training and Placement (OCJTP)
was created in March 1995 to: 

o Cooperate with and coordinate the efforts of
other Federal agencies in the areas of job
training and placement. 

o Collect and disseminate information on offender
job training and placement programs,
accomplishments, and employment outcomes. 

o Provide training to develop staff competencies
in working with offenders and ex- offenders. 

o Provide technical assistance to State and local
training and employment agencies. 

For more information, contact:

John Moore
Coordinator
Office of Correctional Job Training and Placement
National Institute of Corrections
320 First Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20534
Telephone: 800-995-6423 ext. 147 or 202-307-3361
ext. 147
http://www.bop.gov/nicpg/nicmain.html 

The Correctional Education Association (CEA) is
affiliated with the American Correctional
Association as an international professional
organization serving education program needs
within the field of corrections. Membership
includes teachers, librarians, counselors, and
other education professionals. Members receive a
quarterly journal and newsletter, an annual
directory, and a yearbook. Annual conferences are
held in each of CEA's nine regions and many of its
State chapters. One of the regions hosts an
international conference with workshops on
successful instructional strategies. Contact: 

Alice Tracy
Assistant Director
Correctional Education Association
4380 Forbes Boulevard
Lanham, MD 20706
Telephone: 301-918-1915
Fax: 301-918-1846

-------------------------------

For the most up-to-date program information, see
the agency Web pages:

National Institute of Justice:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij

National Institute of Corrections:
http://www.bop.gov/nicpg/nicmain.html

Office of Correctional Education:
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/OCE