NEW YORK (AP) — About 1,500 incarcerated New York City teens have received behavioral therapy aimed at lowering their chances of returning to jail in the first year of a Goldman Sachs-funded program that's the first U.S. effort to lure private investors to finance public social programs.

Nonprofit research group MDRC, the program's administrator, said Wednesday its met many of its first-year goals as it aims to counsel more than 9,000 youths over the next four years under a novel approach to social welfare, called a social impact bond: let companies foot the bill and profit if the program is a success.

Goldman Sachs stands to make a profit on its $9.6 million investment if MDRC's behavioral therapy program prevents enough 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds in the city's notorious Rikers Island jail complex from reoffending.

More than 3,100 adolescent inmates were admitted into Department of Correction custody on Rikers in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available. The DOC says nearly half return within a year of being discharged...

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