Every year, the government spends billions of dollars on programs designed to help America’s neediest citizens. In many cases, whether these programs work is anyone’s guess.....

.....A new partnership among New York State, 40 private investors, and a nonprofit called the Center for Employment Opportunities seeks to apply this sort of thinking to an area of policy that has been particularly resistant to interventions: lowering the recidivism rate in an era of growing prison populations.

The investors, including private philanthropists and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, have put up a total of $13.5 million to fund an expansion of the work that an organization called the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) already does with people coming out of prison. CEO’s model is simple:  It prepares people who have criminal records for the workplace, gives them up to 75 days of temporary employment, and then helps them find jobs of their own. With the $13.5 million, CEO will work with an additional 2,000 clients, targeting the highest-risk people.....

.....A 2012 evaluation by MRDC, a group that evaluates social policies, found that CEO reduced recidivism by 16 to 22 percent and was particularly helpful for people with a high risk of recidivism.....

.....Still, the track record of Pay for Success programs so far is mixed. New York City’s first attempt at a Pay for Success program sought to reduce recidivism among adolescent inmates at Rikers Island. Launched in 2012 and scheduled to run four years, the program was shut down in August after an independent evaluator saw no tangible reductions in recidivism. Another program in Utah that targeted at-risk kindergartners was initially hailed as a success, but experts have since questioned the validity of the data.....

.....That’s why, for Schaeffer and CEO, participating in Pay for Success was a no-brainer. In the past, he said, there’s been little funding for programs that aim to reduce recidivism. Now, there’s increased recognition nationally “that a criminal history doesn’t entirely define a person or their value as a potential employee,” he said. Pay for Success takes away some of the monetary barriers that have previously existed, at the same time that employers are becoming more willing to hire individuals with criminal records. Now, with the additional data available through the program, reducing recidivism is going to become even more possible, he said.....

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