Clinical trial NCT04140942: Improving Employment and Reducing Recidivism Among Prison Offenders Via Virtual Interview Training Tool (MICHR)
Official title: Improving Employment and Reducing Recidivism Among Prison Offenders Via Virtual Interview Training Tool (MICHR)
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Criminal Behavior
Lead sponsor: University of Michigan
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
First posted: 2019-10-28
Enrollment: 44
Sex: MALE
Minimum age (years): 25
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The goal is to conduct a feasibility effectiveness RCT of Virtual Interview Training (VIT) by comparing employment and recidivism outcomes of offenders (25 years and older) receiving vocational services as usual (SAU) plus VIT (SAU+VIT) with the outcomes of offenders receiving only services as usual (SAU-only).

The plan calls for participants to include offenders who are at moderate to high risk for reoffending (with an emphasis on violent-crime reoffending) who are currently enrolled in a Vocational Village Prison Setting with the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Detailed description: More than 600,000 ex-offenders re-enter the community from prison each year and 50% of them recidivate within 12 months of release. Employment significantly reduces the risk of recidivism for ex-offenders, and as such, is a critical target for intervention. However, evidence-based employment services are rarely delivered in prisons. Moreover, employment services that are available do not include evidence-based job interview training. Virtual Reality Job Interview Training (VR-JIT) is an evidence-based tool that was developed and evaluated with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health. However, VR-JIT has a feature to practice discussing a prior conviction during a job interview that has not yet been evaluated. Given that an ex-offender's job interview outcome may depend on discussing their prior conviction, we are partnering with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) to evaluate if delivering VR-JIT within their Vocational Village program can improve employment and reduce recidivism among offenders after their release from prison. Thus, there are two goals for this pilot study. We will evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of whether VR-JIT added to Vocational Village services-as-usual improves outcomes (interview skills, employment, recidivism) for offenders after their release from prison (at a 6-month follow-up visit). These preliminary data will support a proposal to a federal agency for a fully-powered randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of VR-JIT with prison settings.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 25 years or older
* Identified as at moderate to high risk for reoffending with violent crimes (determined at the time of enrollment in the Vocational Village via the COMPAS Risk Assessment Classification Instrument \[60\])
* Within three months of their earliest release date
* Actively enrolled in a Vocational Village
* Have at least a 6th grade reading comprehension

Exclusion Criteria:

* Has uncorrected hearing or visual problem that prevents him or her from using the training
* Has a medical illness that compromises their cognition (for example, moderate to severe traumatic brain injury).

Primary outcomes:
measure: Employment as Measured in Outcome Questionnaire
timeFrame: 6 Month & 12 month follow up after villagers are released.
measure: Job Interview Skills From Mock Interview Rating Scale (MIRS)
timeFrame: Pretest (Baseline) and Posttest (approximately 6 weeks after Baseline)
measure: Number of Participants on With at Least 1 Yes Answer to Recidivism Self-Report Questionnaire
timeFrame: 6 Month and 12 months after Villager Release Date
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Ann Arbor
country: United States
facility: University of Michigan
state: Michigan
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Michigan
name: Matthew J Smith, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: