Program Profile: Community and Law Enforcement Resources Together (ComALERT)

This is a reentry program in Brooklyn, N.Y., that provides substance abuse treatment, employment, and housing services for parolees. The program is rated Promising. Participants demonstrated a statistically significant lower likelihood of being rearrested or reconvicted, compared with the matched control group. However, there were no significant differences in employment and earnings, cohabitating with a partner and regular contact with their children, or drug and alcohol use.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

Program Goals/Target Population

Community and Law Enforcement Resources Together (ComALERT) is a reentry program in Brooklyn, N.Y., that provides substance abuse treatment, employment, and housing services for parolees transitioning from prison back into the community. The goal of the program is to reduce recidivism of parolees by providing them with the tools and support they need to remain drug-free, crime-free, and employed.

Parolees are eligible to participate in ComALERT if they are:

• Paroled to Brooklyn and have at least 6 months remaining of supervision
• At least 18 years old
• In need of substance abuse treatment

Parolees are not eligible if they have been convicted of a sex offense, arson, or if they suffer from a serious and persistent mental illness. Most program participants are on parole for either a drug crime or a crime of violence, such as robbery, assault, and homicide.

Program Components

ComALERT services begin for parolees almost immediately upon release from prison. An inmate released from prison has 24 to 48 hours from release to report to the New York State Division of Parole, which is the primary source of program referrals. The parole officer may decide to refer a parolee to the division’s Access Center, based on a prerelease assessment need for treatment. At the center, a ComALERT–certified alcohol and substance abuse counselor (CASAC) works on site to streamline the referral process. The CASAC administers a psychological assessment that asks about parolees’ past activities and future goals.

After the assessment, parolees are directed to the ComALERT Reentry Center in downtown Brooklyn, where they go through program orientation and are assigned to a social worker. Social workers are primarily responsible for helping participants to comply with conditional release requirements, which include substance abuse treatment and employment. All ComALERT participants receive nonintensive, outpatient substance abuse treatment. Program participants are required to attend individual therapy sessions with their primary counselor once per week, as well as weekly group treatment sessions. For most participants, the program last between 3 and 6 months.

In addition to receiving substance abuse treatment, ComALERT participants are also referred to the “Ready, Willing, & Able” (RWA) program, which provides transitional employment opportunities, transitional housing, vocational training, and 12-step meetings, as well as courses on financial management and other life skills over a 9-month period. The program offers full-time manual labor work through the Community Improvement Project, a jobs program run by the RWA. RWA participants begin to immediately receive a weekly stipend for their work, while a portion of the money they earn is put into a mandatory savings account. Through case management and mentoring services, as well as vocational training in fields such as pest control, commercial driving, and food service, the program also provides assistance in finding a permanent job. The RWA program further provides courses to prepare for the General Educational Development test (or GED), computer/literacy classes, and individual tutoring. Participants receive meals and other services at the Doe Fund facility (RWA’s parent organization), and can also temporarily stay at a living facility (called the Stuyvesant House) if they are in need of housing. The RWA program has a zero-tolerance policy on substance abuse. Participants are administered random drug tests, and if they test positive, they are discharged from the program.

The final component of the ComALERT program is service referral. Program participants are referred to a variety of service providers, such as organizations that provide housing, vocational programs, and job readiness services. Participants can also be referred to organizations that help them enroll in government programs, such as Medicaid.

ComALERT staff works closely with the Division of Parole to monitor participants throughout the time they remain in the program. If a participant is in noncompliance with program requirements, the parole officer is informed of the violation. A law enforcement sanction, such as parole revocation, can be used at the discretion of the parole officer. For less serious violations, other sanctions, such as more frequent drug testing, can also be used. In order to graduate from the ComALERT program, participants must be drug-free for 3 months and either employed or in school.

Key Personnel

The Kings County District Attorney’s office began the ComALERT program in 1999 as a way to bring together District Attorney staff, community-based organizations, and service providers. The collaboration also includes the Counseling Service of Eastern District New York (or CSEDNY), the New York State Division of Parole, and the Doe’s Fund, Inc., which runs the RWA program.

Additional Information

The ComALERT program does not require participants to have medical insurance (uninsured participants receive treatment that is paid for by a grant from the New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services). This allows all participants to begin receiving substance abuse treatment almost immediately after release from prison.

Study

Jacobs and Western (2007) examined the effectiveness of the Community and Law Enforcement Resource Together (ComALERT) program in Brooklyn, N.Y., by comparing the differences in outcome measures between program participants and a matched group of parolees who did not participate in the program.

The study employed propensity score matching to create a control group of New York City parolees with characteristics that closely matched those of the treatment group. The ComALERT treatment group (n = 448) and matched control group (n = 448) were both almost entirely male (98 percent) and 79 percent African American, 19 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent white. The average age was 33 years. There were no significant differences between the groups.

The analysis looked at two different treatment effects: ComALERT graduate treatment effects and ComALERT attendee treatment effects. ComALERT graduates (n = 243) included those participants who attended and successfully completed the program. ComALERT attendees (n = 448) included all participants who were officially admitted into the program, whether they successfully completed the program (ComALERT graduates) or not (ComALERT discharges). This CrimeSolutions review focused on the comparison between the ComALERT attendees and the matched control group.

The outcome measures of interest included recidivism, substance abuse, employment, and family relations. Recidivism was measured in the following five ways: 1) rearrest, 2) reconviction, 3) reincarceration by parole violation, 4) reincarceration by new sentence, and 5) any reincarceration. Data on the criminal histories of every person released to parole in New York City between Oct. 1, 2004, and Oct. 1, 2006, were collected from the Criminal History Data at the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). Information was provided on arrests, convictions, incarceration periods, parole periods, probation periods, and demographic variables (race, gender, and date of birth). The data were merged with the ComALERT Criminal History Database, which contains the criminal histories of ComALERT attendees who entered the program between Oct. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2006. A propensity score matching technique was used to match the cases from the DCJS database with cases in the ComALERT database.

Information on participants’ employment and earnings was obtained from correctional administrative data collected by state unemployment insurance (UI) authorities Additional data on employment and earnings, as well as drug and alcohol use, and family relations were collected from surveys distributed to 128 ComALERT participants and a comparison group of 113 Brooklyn parolees. The survey was based on the Urban Institute’s Coming Home Survey. ComALERT participants were initially contacted by mail and by phone. Participants still in the program were personally contacted at the ComALERT offices. The comparison group of Brooklyn parolees was recruited through referrals by ComALERT survey respondents or in response to flyers distributed by parole officers.

Analysis of the data included the construction of life tables, which can be used to calculate the cumulative percentage of study participants who recidivate by time since release, for each of the recidivism outcomes. The life table includes time (in quarters) since release and several variables for each quarter, including the number of study participants for whom data are available, the number of participants who entered the quarter having not yet recidivated, the number who recidivated in each quarter, and the number who are censored in each quarter. Because the life tables account for censoring, the recidivism rates take into account exposure to risk (the number of people for whom a recidivism event could be observed during each quarter, given the availability of data for that quarter).

Data were also analyzed using hazard regression analysis, which allowed for the inclusion of a statistical model of the variables that affect the likelihood of rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration. These predictor variables included ComALERT treatment, demographic, and criminal history variables that are also related to recidivism. The life tables analysis did not control for these other predictors. The analysis used proportional hazards Weibull regression to model each recidivism outcome.

Subgroup Analysis

When differentiating between Community and Law Enforcement Resource Together (ComALERT) graduates and discharges (i.e., noncompleters), Jacobs and Western (2007) found that program graduates had a 45.7 percent lower risk of being rearrested after 2 years, compared with matched control group members. This difference was statistically significant. However, ComALERT discharges did not differ significantly from controls in rearrest rates.

ComALERT graduates also had a 50.7 percent lower risk of being reconvicted on a new charge of any severity, compared with matched controls. This difference was statistically significant. However, there was no significant difference in the risk of reconviction between ComALERT discharges and controls.

With regard to reincarceration, after 2 years, 18.4 percent of ComALERT graduates were returned to prison for any reason, compared with 29.9 percent of controls. Distinguishing between ComALERT graduates and discharges, the analysis found a statistically significant reduction in risk of reincarceration for graduates (49.3 percent lower), and a statistically significant increase in risk of reincarceration for discharges (73.5 percent), compared with controls.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

Hynes, Charles J. 2008. “ComALERT: A Prosecutor’s Collaborative Model for Ensuring a Successful Transition from Prison to the Community.” Journal of Court Innovation 1(1):123–49.

Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:

Adult Reentry Programs

This practice involves correctional programs that focus on the transition of individuals from prison into the community. Reentry programs involve treatment or services that have been initiated while the individual is in custody and a follow-up component after the individual is released. The practice is rated Promising for reducing recidivism.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency - Multiple crime/offense types

Rehabilitation Programs for Adults Convicted of a Crime

This practice includes programs that are designed to reduce recidivism among adults by improving their behaviors, skills, mental health, social functioning, and access to education and employment. They may become participants in rehabilitation programs during multiple points in their involvement with the criminal justice system. This practice is rated Promising for reducing recidivism among adults who have been convicted of an offense.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency - Multiple crime/offense types

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?