Public Health and Safety Portfolio

In the fall of 2015, the University of Chicago Health Lab awarded $1 million to Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC), Heartland Alliance Health (HAH), and the Cook County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) to launch a Supportive Release Center (SRC) to provide supports for male pretrial detainees leaving Cook County Jail. The SRC study is a nested randomized controlled trial (RCT) that, overall, evaluates the impact of visiting the SRC on individuals’ criminal justice and health outcomes. Within the SRC trial, a second, “inner” RCT further examines the impact of Critical Time Intervention (CTI). CTI is an intensive, phased case management program. For the SRC pilot, CTI was administered by Heartland Alliance Health with individuals who visited the SRC and were experiencing homelessness.  

From the study, the primary outcomes were recidivism (e.g., number of returns to jail within 12 months, time elapsed until next jail stay after intervention) and contact with the homelessness response system. In the main SRC study, Health Lab found that SRC participation was associated with a statistically significant, one-third reduction in post-arrest rearrest rates among men over the age of 45, with strongest effects in the immediate 30 days post-release. Health Lab found no reduction in re-arrest rates among men younger than 45, a finding that reflects low SRC program take-up among younger men. In the CTI study, Health Lab found that SRC participation plus CTI treatment did not reduce re-arrest when compared with SRC participation alone. Participants assigned to CTI treatment did, however, experience significantly greater contacts with the homelessness response system than did the SRC CTI control group over the two years post release.