PROJECT
RIO (TX)
Contact Information
Texas Workforce Commission
Project RIO Staff
101 E. 15th Street, Room 506T
Austin, TX 78778
Tel: 1.800.453.8140
Web: www.texasworkforce.org |
Organization:
Government
Start
Date: 1985
Program
Area: Employment
Public Safety
|
Program
Description
The
Project RIO (Re-Integration of Offenders) program is operated
through the Texas Workforce Commission. It has over 100 program
staff in 62 offices across the state, providing services to 16,000
parolees every year. The initial impetus behind the program was
to reduce skyrocketing corrections costs by reducing the number
of released prisoners that are returned to prison.
Project
RIO begins working with clients before they are released from prison.
While in prison, Project RIO provides several services to inmates:
•
Program participants receive assessments and testing used to develop
an employment plan and participate in job readiness and life skills
training during their incarceration.
•
Assessment specialists gather birth certificates, social security
cards, and
general equivalency diplomas
(GEDs) from family members
and others for the inmates.
•
A job readiness specialist meets with every participant who is
within two years of his/her release date and every 90 days after
that to help work on the interviewing skills of the inmate.
•
Inmates work on Project RIO developed workbooks called Project
RIO Occupational Direction or PROD to help develop their employability
and life skills.
•
RIO clients who are within six months of release can participate
in a 65-day life skills program. Covering anger management, family
relationships, victim awareness, personal hygiene, and other related
topics, the life skills program is taught by the Windham School,
which operates within the Texas prisons and is funded by the Texas
Education Agency.
Prisoners learn about and connect to Project
RIO both in prison and after release in several ways: Project RIO
distributes program brochures to all new inmates; sponsors an orientation
for prisoners on release day, providing them with contact information
for the program; and trains parole officers to refer their parolees
to the program. After release, Project RIO employment specialists
work with clients to place them in jobs that match their skills and
temperament.
Program
Goals
Project RIO aims to reduce recidivism through employment. It makes
job placement services available to every parolee in Texas and works
to begin this process while clients are still in prison.
Networking, Partnering & Collaboration
The Texas Workforce Commission administers Project RIO in collaboration
with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and The Texas Youth
Commission. In addition, the Texas Workforce Commission has developed
a network of over 12,000 employers across the state that have hired
parolees who have completed the program.
Outcomes
An independent evaluation of the program completed in 1992 documented
a number of promising outcomes. Nearly 70 percent of RIO participants
found employment compared to 36 percent of a matched group of non-participants.
Additionally, within one year after release from prison, RIO participants
were less likely to have been returned to prison: 23 percent of
RIO participants were returned to prison within one year of release
compared to 38 percent of the comparison group. The study also estimated
that RIO saved the State of Texas over $15 million in 1990 alone
due to the reduction in the number of people who otherwise would
have been rearrested and returned to prison.
Additional
Reading
- Peter Finn. 1998. “Texas’ Project RIO
(Re-Integration of Offenders).” Program Focus.
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 168637. Available
at
www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/168637.pdf.
Click
here for a PDF of all Employment Sample Programs (220k)
|
