Program Profile: Minnesota's Affordable Homes Program

This is a prison work crew program designed to increase the availability of affordable low-income housing while training inmates in construction-industry-specific occupational skills. The program is rated Ineffective. The program had a statistically significant effect on participants’ likelihood of gaining employment in the construction field. However, there were no statistically significant effects on rearrests, reconvictions, and reincarceration.

An Ineffective rating implies that implementing the program is unlikely to result in the intended outcome(s).

An Ineffective rating implies that implementing the program is unlikely to result in the intended outcome(s).

Program Goals

The Minnesota Department of Corrections (MDOC) manages the Affordable Homes Program (AHP), a prison work crew program that trains prisoners in construction, building, and remodeling low-income homes, while they serve time. Established in 1998, AHP was designed to increase affordable low-income housing in Minnesota while providing prisoners with occupational skills and positive work habits to help secure employment after their release from prison.

Target Population

To be eligible for AHP, prisoners must a) be minimum security; b) have no outstanding misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, or felony charges; c) have made no escape attempts in the last 5 years; d) have no history of sexual offenses; e) have no discipline violation in the last 6 months resulting in segregation or extended incarceration; f) pose no risk to the community; g) have a positive attitude; and h) be physically capable of performing the work.

Program Activities

AHP provides hands-on field training designed to help prisoners find employment in the construction industry after their release from prison. Work crews are made up of up to 10 prisoners who are housed in local correctional facilities, such as county jails, in order to be more accessible to the community that they work in.

Prisoners work four 10-hour days a week under the supervision of an MDOC employee who is a master tradesman. Each crew is supplied with a van for transportation and a trailer for their tools. Prisoners are paid an hourly wage that varies from $1.00 to $1.50 and is used to pay restitution, for release money, or is saved in an account until the prisoner is released.

Study

Bohmert and Duwe (2012) used a retrospective quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of the Minnesota Affordable Homes Program (AHP) on post-release employment, recidivism, and program costs. The treatment group (n = 224) consisted of all incarcerated men who participated in AHP from 1998 to 2005 and were released to the community before January 2006; the comparison group (n = 224) consisted of all incarcerated persons who did not participate in AHP during that same time period. All study participants were followed through 2008. Propensity score matching was used to create a similar comparison group.

The study sample was mostly white (treatment group = 73 percent, comparison group = 75 percent); were an average of 35 years old at release; had an average of 1½ previous prison commitments; had an average prison stay of 2½ years; and were likely to have been incarcerated for a property offense (treatment group = 40 percent, comparison group = 41 percent) or drug offense (treatment group = 34 percent, comparison group = 30 percent). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups at baseline.

Postrelease employment was measured by whether the individual obtained employment, the total number of hours of employment, and the amount of money earned, using data from the Minnesota Department of Employee and Economic Development. Recidivism was measured by a rearrest for a new offense, a felony reconviction, and a return to prison for a new crime. Data on rearrest and reconviction was obtained from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Data on reincarceration was obtained from the Minnesota Department of Corrections Correctional Operations Management System database, which limited the results to recidivism data in Minnesota only. The authors conducted subgroup analyses to examine the difference between AHP completers and noncompleters and the comparison group.

Subgroup Analysis

Bohmert and Duwe (2012) conducted a subgroup analysis on the recidivism measures of rearrest for a new crime, felony reconviction, and reincarceration for a new crime, with a focus on the Minnesota Affordable Homes Program (AHP) completers (n = 146) and noncompleters (n = 78) versus the comparison group (n = 224). On all three measures, AHP completers had lower recidivism rates, compared with the comparison group, whereas AHP noncompleters had higher recidivism rates, compared with the comparison group. These differences were all statistically significant.

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

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

Duwe, Grant. 2013. What Works With Minnesota Prisoners: A Summary of the Effects of Correctional Programming on Recidivism, Employment, and Cost Avoidance. St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Minnesota Department of Corrections. 2010. An Evaluation of the Institution/Community Work Crew: Affordable Homes Program. St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Northcutt Bohmert, Miriam, and Grant Duwe. 2012. “Minnesota’s Affordable Homes Program: Evaluating the Effects of a Prison Work Program on Recidivism, Employment and Cost Avoidance.” Criminal Justice Policy Review 23(3):327–51