Improving Employment and Reducing Recidivism Among Prison Offenders Via Virtual Interview Training Tool (MICHR)

More than 600,000 ex-offenders re-enter the community from prison each year and 50% of them recidivate within 12 months of release. Employment significantly reduces the risk of recidivism for ex-offenders, and as such, is a critical target for intervention. However, evidence-based employment services are rarely delivered in prisons. Moreover, employment services that are available do not include evidence-based job interview training. Virtual Reality Job Interview Training (VR-JIT) is an evidence-based tool that was developed and evaluated with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health. However, VR-JIT has a feature to practice discussing a prior conviction during a job interview that has not yet been evaluated. Given that an ex-offender's job interview outcome may depend on discussing their prior conviction, we are partnering with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) to evaluate if delivering VR-JIT within their Vocational Village program can improve employment and reduce recidivism among offenders after their release from prison. Thus, there are two goals for this pilot study. We will evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of whether VR-JIT added to Vocational Village services-as-usual improves outcomes (interview skills, employment, recidivism) for offenders after their release from prison (at a 6-month follow-up visit). These preliminary data will support a proposal to a federal agency for a fully-powered randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of VR-JIT with prison settings.

Inclusion criteria

• 25 years or older
• Identified as at moderate to high risk for reoffending with violent crimes (determined at the time of enrollment in the Vocational Village via the COMPAS Risk Assessment Classification Instrument [60])
• Within three months of their earliest release date
• Actively enrolled in a Vocational Village
• Have at least a 6th grade reading comprehension

Exclusion criteria

• Has uncorrected hearing or visual problem that prevents him or her from using the training
• Has a medical illness that compromises their cognition (for example, moderate to severe traumatic brain injury).