Evidence Dismas Works

The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation in Washington DC, in conjunction with the LaFrance Associates research team in San Francisco, has identified Dismas House of Massachusetts as one of the top four prisoner reentry programs nationwide. The goal of the 2007 Eisenhower study is to identify replicable strategies for successful prisoner reentry, and then work with the executive staff of the various non-profits to replicate their models in communities across the country.

The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation is the international, nonprofit continuation of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Riot Commission, after the big city riots of the 1960s) and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (the National Violence Commission, after the assassinations of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy).

According to a report by the Massachusetts Parole Board, from October 2006- July 2007, The Almost Home Program had a 95% success rate. This means that only 5% of residents were negatively discharged or re-arrested, and none were re-incarcerated.

.In 2002, the Urban Institute evaluated effective programming in their pioneering study on prisoner reentry. Dismas House was highlighted in the report as a cost effective manner to reduce recidivism and reverse the damage occurring through poorly managed prison release.

Former Governor Michael Dukakis and Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, have praised the Dismas model and Dismas House’s success at reversing recidivistic trends in the former prisoner population.

According to Community Resources for Justice, Inc., the re-arrest and recidivism rate for the general former prisoner population in Massachusetts is approximately 62-65 percent. A three-year tracking of Dismas House alumni revealed that only 25 percent (3 percent margin of error) of alumni had returned to the streets or jail. Data collected on these same residents indicates that 75 percent of these individuals had been repeat offenders before coming to Dismas, having served more than one sentence in jail. A 75 percent success rate reverses the previous recidivistic trend for these individuals. Success is measured as a successful transition to other sober housing, Section 8 or public housing, private, permanent housing or transfer to another program.

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