Project Summary
Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise’s (OMES) Women in Recovery (WIR) provides an intensive outpatient alternative to incarceration for justice-involved women with substance use disorders facing incarceration.
WIR’s goal is to reduce female receptions from Tulsa County to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (OKDOC) correctional facilities. Addiction, adverse childhood experiences, domestic violence and poverty are often a woman’s pathway into the criminal justice system. Consequently, WIR helps women conquer drug addiction, recover from trauma and acquire essential economic, emotional and social tools to build successful and productive lives, thereby improving public safety while generating federal, state, and local financial value. With a focus on improving the lives of at-risk women and their children, WIR also seeks to break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration by strengthening and reuniting WIR mothers and their children. Services are provided through an 18-month, intensive outpatient three-phase program model using best practices as well as evidence-based curricula and treatment models.
The award includes:
- $3.4 million project grant.
- $505,000 for independent evaluation.
WIR seeks to demonstrate stable employment and improved child welfare outcomes (e.g., reduced foster care involvement and contact with child protection services) for the target population.
Outcome Goals:
- Stable employment and annual earnings.
- Reduced foster care referrals.
- Lower contact rate with child protective services.
- Reduced recidivism.
WIR is an intensive alternative to incarceration for women facing long-term prison sentences for non-violent offenses. WIR is specifically designed to address the complex needs and risks of justice-involved women in four phases.
The first phase (approximately 20 weeks) focuses on, among others, counseling and education, employment assessments, acquiring supportive housing, court-required supervision (including GPS monitoring), and drug testing. Phase two (approximately 16 weeks) focuses on continued counseling and education, curricula used by individual and group therapists (e.g., trauma recovery, financial literacy, conflict resolution), continued supportive housing, and court-required supervision. Phase three (approximately 20 weeks) focuses on continued counseling and education, continued use of therapist-assigned curricula, court-required supervision, and community integration.
After phase three, the women begin meeting the criteria for program graduation including: stable employment, living or budgeted to be living on their own, completed all curricula and requirements, be in good standing with the court and criminal justice system, maintaining stability with recovery efforts, obtained GED (if applicable), and is in the process of entering phase four (continuing care). Phase four— called continuing care— provides an array of services to meet the needs of each WIR graduate to prevent further entanglement with the criminal justice system.
WIR targets justice-involved females 18 years old or older with substance use disorders who are prison-bound and ineligible for other Tulsa County diversion programs. WIR expects to enroll 500 new participants over two cohorts.
- Reduced female incarceration.
- Increased sobriety and recovery.
- Improved mental health.
- Increased employment.
- Housing stability.
- Stable and healthy families.
- Community integration.
| Role | Entity | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| State government | Office of Management and Enterprise Services | Provide upfront funding for all sites. Oversee partner and service providers during project. |
| Intermediary | N/A | |
| Service providers | Family and Children’s Services | Manage all services required by WIR. |
| Independent evaluator | WestED | Establish research design. |
| Investor | George Kaiser Family Foundation | Provide annual capital to fund the delivery of WIR services. |
The project has two outcomes: employment and child welfare. If the project is successful, four payments will be made in total— two for each cohort. For each cohort, a payment will be made for outcomes achieved at 18 months post-enrollment and a second payment will be made for outcomes achieved at 30 months post-enrollment. The 30-month outcomes will only look at impact that occurred since the 18-month time point, as federal outcome payments will have already been realized for impact that occurred during the first 18 months. Each cohort will be eligible for one payment for each outcome domain: employment and child welfare. Each outcome valuation will be conducted independently, and the realization of outcome payments related to one outcome domain will not be contingent on the results from any other outcome domain.
For child welfare, the independent evaluation will compare the results of the treatment group to the results of the comparison group and only validate a request for outcome payments if there is a lower child protective services contact rate and/or foster care referrals within the identified range. To determine the outcome payment for federal value for the child welfare outcome, the independent evaluator will review the federal outlays needed after the intervention minus the federal outlays at the beginning of the intervention.
To calculate the outcome payment for federal value for the employment outcome, the independent evaluator will calculate the federal tax revenue (weighted by filing status – e.g., single, married, children in custody) after the treatment group has graduated from the WIR program.
| Service Delivery | $ 25,743,966 |
| Evaluation | $ 505,063 |
| Total Project Costs | $ 26,249,029 |
- Project Period of Performance Start Date: January 2022
- Project Period of Performance End Date: July 2028
- Evaluation Start Date: October 2025
- Evaluation End Date: July 2029
All participants are women with substance abuse issues who are at imminent risk for incarceration and ineligible for other drug or mental health court and jail diversion programs. All eligible women receive a standardized, gender-specific risk assessment to determine their risk, needs, and treatment readiness. WIR then advocates and collaborates with the local prosecutor, court services, and judges to make a final decision on admission to the WIR program.
All participants must be able, emotionally and mentally, to receive services in an outpatient environment, voluntarily consent to services, and work collaboratively with the treatment team under a comprehensive treatment plan.
Because of the project design, a randomized control trial was not determined to be the appropriate evaluation design. WestEd will lead a quasi-experiment matched comparison study using logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression. The treatment group shall consist of individuals who have been enrolled in the Women in Recovery program. The control group shall be a matched comparison group, consisting of female prison receptions and releases outside of Tulsa County who did not receive Women in Recovery or other comparable services. The results of the treatment group will be compared to the results of the comparison group across all outcome measures.
The reliance on state and local administrative data sources reduces the chance that outcome measures can be manipulated by service providers, intermediaries, or investors. To further mitigate this risk, the evaluator will include a number of steps to ensure the independence and integrity of the evaluation process.
For employment, WIR will track the employment status and wages of its graduate population and calculate their anticipated income tax bracket, accounting for deductions, income tax returns, and other changes to income tax.
For child welfare, a baseline outlay will be calculated by determining the rate of incarcerated mothers (the rate of incarcerated women that have child welfare involvement divided by the number of incarcerated women who are mothers). The after-intervention outlay will be determined by the difference in spending for a WIR mother involved in the child welfare system, compared to the expected child welfare spending of an incarcerated individual with child welfare involvement.
| Entity | Estimated Savings | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Federal government | $972,000 | The estimated federal savings includes $972,000 for child welfare outcomes. This project also generates $2.4 million in new revenue to the federal government through increased employment. |
| State government | $6.4 million | The state and local savings is estimated through a reduction in recidivism, reduced homelessness, employment benefits, and reduced utilization of the child welfare system. |
Further information is available through the official press release and federal registry notice. These documents provide detailed background on the SIPPRA award and program expectations.