(April 22, 2025) — Nonprofit research organization MDRC released a new study today showing that participants in a program that provides short-term conditional cash payments to returning citizens had fewer parole violations than a similar group of recently incarcerated individuals. Early indications suggest that the program may also reduce reincarceration rates more than two years later.

Developed by the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), the Returning Citizens Stimulus (RCS) program offered former prisoners in Los Angeles and Alameda counties three monthly payments totaling up to $2,750 to help them successfully transition back into their communities. To secure all three stipends, participants had to reach agreed-upon reentry milestones (examples included making a resume, participating in an employment workshop, and completing a health evaluation).

Each year in the United States, about 600,000 people are released from state and federal prisons, and millions more are released from local jails. Often with few financial resources, these returning citizens must address their day-to-day needs for food, clothing, and housing; obtain identification and access to medical care; and find employment and reconnect with family. For decades, most jurisdictions offered released prisoners little more than “gate money” (generally less than $50), to cover the cost of transportation and other immediate needs.

Launched in April 2020, the RCS program — funded by philanthropy, implemented in 28 cities across the United States, and administered by CEO — has served more than 10,000 former prisoners. Designed to provide meaningful cash assistance to returning citizens during the months after their release from prison or jail, the RCS program aims to help people quickly reach stability in their lives outside of prison and reduce recidivism as a result. In an earlier MDRC report, participants reported that the first-of-its-kind program helped them feel more financially stable in the period following incarceration. Most said that they used the funds for essential expenses such as rent, groceries, and clothing, and on personal care to prepare themselves for employment. 

Key Findings

In this study, MDRC researchers used a technique called propensity score matching to compare recidivism outcomes for RCS participants in Los Angeles and Alameda counties with those of a matched, statistically similar comparison group. The key findings are:

• In the first six months after being released from prison, RCS program participants had fewer parole violations than a similar group of recently incarcerated individuals. Participants were also less likely to violate parole by committing violent infractions, such as assault and battery.
   
• In the first year after being released, participants in the RCS program committed fewer parole violations (both overall and for violent offenses) than their nonparticipant counterparts. Because program participation was limited to three months, generally shortly after release, the program appears to reduce recidivism among participants even after they stopped receiving the cash stimulus.
   
• The RCS program may have been effective at reducing reincarceration among program participants in the 18-, 24-, and 30-month follow-up periods. However, further study is needed to assess the reliability of this estimated effect.

“These findings demonstrate that the Returning Citizens Stimulus program is promising as a model intervention for reducing parole violations and reincarceration during the critical first year following release from prison,” said Sarah Picard, Director of the MDRC Center for Criminal Justice Research. “Given the link between early reentry success and improved longer term outcomes for returning citizens, the program makes a critical contribution to establishing cash stimulus as an evidence-based strategy.”

“Every person deserves a fair chance — and that starts with real, tangible assistance the moment they return from incarceration,” Sam Schaeffer, CEO of the Center for Employment Opportunities. “When we give people autonomy and agency in the reentry journey, they achieve amazing things. This research underscores the urgent need to shift how we support people returning home and strengthens the growing body of evidence demonstrating the need to focus on cost-effective, data-driven solutions that provide a sound foundation during the most vulnerable stage of reentry.”

Looking Forward

Reentry cash stimulus is emerging as a key policy issue across the country. Major cities, such as New York City, and entire states, like Colorado, are currently considering legislation to codify and greatly expand the support provided by their reentry cash assistance programs. This first study provides valuable insight into the potential benefits of building out such support. Further research is essential to confirm the findings presented here and to examine additional outcomes that measure returning citizens’ stability, such as employment, housing, and health.

For more information, read Support for the Journey Home: An Impact Study of the Returning Citizens Stimulus Program, by Megan Schwartz.

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This study was sponsored by CEO, with funding from Blue Meridian Partners on behalf of the Justice and Mobility Fund.

MDRC is committed to finding solutions to some of the most difficult problems facing the nation—from reducing poverty and bolstering economic mobility to improving public education and college graduation rates. MDRC designs promising new interventions, evaluates existing programs using the highest research standards, and provides technical assistance to build better programs and deliver effective interventions on a large scale.

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) provides immediate, effective, and comprehensive employment services exclusively to people recently released from incarceration. CEO currently operates in over 30 cities and is dedicated to ensuring that justice-impacted job-seekers have opportunities to achieve social and economic mobility.