Elizabeth Drake - June 2009

The Institute was contracted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Department of Corrections’ “Going Home Project.” The program was designed to transition younger, high-risk, violent offenders into the community. To date, not enough time has passed to conduct an outcome evaluation with a comparison group and 36-month follow-up. This interim report outlines our research design and provides 18-month recidivism rates for program participants.

Tali Klima, Marna Miller, Corey Nunlist - June 2009

The 2008 Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to evaluate evidence-based intervention and prevention programs for truancy. Because truancy and school dropout are closely linked, we also examined dropout prevention programs. In this report, we investigated whether targeted school, court, and law enforcement programs for middle and high school students affect educational outcomes, including high school graduation, dropping out, achievement, and attendance. The results of 22 studies were aggregated, and effective program types are identified.

Tali Klima, Marna Miller, Corey Nunlist - June 2009

This report describes attendance problems in Washington’s schools by identifying the rates of chronically truant students. These students may be the target of multiple school-based interventions, which are the focus of the current report. In 2008, the Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to survey truancy-specific intervention programs and services currently available in Washington’s school districts. Due to the close link between chronic truancy and dropping out, we investigated not only programs for students with specific attendance problems but also those for students at a larger risk of school failure. We also investigated several community-based collaborations that include school district partners and analyzed gaps in student access to existing school services.

Mason Burley - June 2009

The 2001 Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to “conduct a longitudinal study of long-term [mental health] client outcomes to assess any changes in client status at two, five, and ten years.” Every year, the state’s public mental health system serves about 120,000 individuals. To follow changes over time, this paper focuses on a cohort of 38,668 adults who received public mental health services in January 2004. At the end of five years, mental health consumers were classified into those who 1) received services continually (every month), 2) regularly utilized mental health services (every quarter), 3) had intermittent use of mental health services (breaks longer than three months), and 4) clients who received services and did not return (“leavers”). After profiling these four categories of clients, we examine outcomes for each related to employment, housing, hospitalizations, and involvement in the criminal justice system.

Marna Miller - June 2009

The 2008 Legislature directed the Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman (OFCO) to analyze referrals of child abuse and neglect to find out whether the source of the referral influenced the response by the Child Protective Services (CPS) at the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). OFCO contracted with the Institute to perform the study. We examined a total of 96,000 referrals made between January 2006 and February 2008 and found that educators and social services professionals make more reports to CPS than other types of reporters. Compared with other reporters, referrals from law enforcement were more likely to both be accepted for investigation and result in removal of a child from his or her home.

The study also found variations in the outcomes of referrals from the various types of reporters. The largest variations in outcomes were determined by DSHS region and the risk assignment history of individual intake workers. Intake workers with a history of assigning higher levels of risk than their peers were more likely to continue to assign higher levels of risk.

Janie Maki, Roxanne Lieb - June 2009

The Washington State Institute for Public Policy conducts non-partisan policy research for the state of Washington. Originally conceived in 1982, the organization’s governance structure and operating practices have evolved over time. This paper reviews the history of the Institute’s structure and mission.

Elizabeth Drake, Steve Aos, Marna Miller - April 2009

In 2006, long-term forecasts indicated that Washington faced the need to construct several new prisons in the following two decades. Since new prisons are costly, the legislature directed the Institute to project whether there are “evidence-based” options that can reduce the future need for prison beds, save money for state and local taxpayers, and contribute to lower crime rates. As part of a systematic review of the research evidence, we found and analyzed 545 comparison-group evaluations of adult corrections, juvenile corrections, and prevention programs to determine what works, if anything, to reduce crime. We then estimated the benefits and costs of many of these evidence-based options and found that some evidence-based programs produce favorable returns on investment. This paper presents our findings and describes our meta-analytic and economic methods.

Elizabeth Drake, Robert Barnoski, Steve Aos - April 2009

The 2003 Washington State Legislature passed ESSB 5990, which increased “earned early release time” for certain types of offenders. The bill authorizes the Washington State Department of Corrections to release certain eligible offenders earlier if they have demonstrated good behavior in prison.

The Institute was directed by the Legislature to evaluate the effect of the 2003 law. Our overall recidivism findings remain consistent with those in the original November 2008 report; we strengthened the cost-benefit analysis for this revised version and find that the law generates benefits of $1.88 per dollar of cost.

Mason Burley - April 2009

The 2001 Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to analyze the outcomes of public mental health consumers. This report examines the relationship between public mental health services and mental health-related hospitalizations and emergency departments. In 2007, one out of five adult hospital stays involved a mental health or substance abuse (MHSA) diagnosis in Washington State. A greater percentage of MHSA-related hospitalizations come from the emergency department and a disproportionate number are paid for by Medicare or Medicaid. Among Medicaid clients, those with frequent or high-cost emergency department visits are more likely to have an MHSA diagnosis. This report also explores the extent to which these clients may receive treatment from the public mental health system. Given the close relationship between these two systems, potential costs to public mental health and the state’s community hospitals should be evaluated as new mental health policies are considered and adopted in Washington State.

Marna Miller - April 2009

The 2008 Legislature directed the Institute to collect information on how well current services are meeting the needs of youth aging out of foster care. A survey was conducted of Independent and Transitional Living Programs that provided services to foster youth as they prepared for and transitioned to independent living. During this year a total of $372,253 was distributed to the approximately 1,200 participating youth. Over 300 of this population received funds for housing support.