Corrections_Today_March_April_2019

nEWS & vIEWS

View from the Line

HOPE: A statewide re-entry mentoring program for youth in correctional confinement

By Theresa A. Ochoa, Sarah D. Swank, Helena Flores, Susan Lockwood, Niki Weller and Monica Solinas-Saunders

A lthough there are fewer youth in confinement now than in the past, recidivism contin- ues to be a problem, both nationally and at the state levels. Approximately 55 percent of youth who leave long- term correctional confinement return to incarceration within one year (Rand Corporation, 2014). Youth in Indiana, just as with those in the rest of the United States, struggle with community re-entry after correctional confinement. In 2013, there were 54,148 youth in long-term residential confinement in the U.S. compared to 61,000 in 2011 (Office of Justice Programs, 2016). In Indiana, a study of individuals released from state- level juvenile correctional facilities in 2012 revealed an overall recidivism rate of 35.3 percent. While Indiana’s rate of recidivism is lower than the national level of 55 percent, a study conducted by the Indiana Department of Correction revealed that there was a significant increase in overall re- cidivism from 16.7 percent in the first year post re-entry, to 35.3 percent in the third year of re-entry (Schelle, 2015). Research has consistently

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shown that the lack of employment is the top predictor of recidivism (Lockwood & Nally, 2017). In fact,

Lockwood and Nally concluded that individuals who are young, unem- ployed and without a high school

14 — March/April 2019 Corrections Today