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

University of Michigan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Criminal Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: Virtual Reality Job Interview Training; Behavioral: Services as usual

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04140942

3UL1TR002240-05S1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

HUM00165245

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal is to conduct a feasibility effectiveness RCT of Virtual Interview Training (VIT) by comparing employment and recidivism outcomes of offenders (25 years and older) receiving vocational services as usual (SAU) plus VIT (SAU+VIT) with the outcomes of offenders receiving only services as usual (SAU-only).

The plan calls for participants to include offenders who are at moderate to high risk for reoffending (with an emphasis on violent-crime reoffending) who are currently enrolled in a Vocational Village Prison Setting with the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Full description

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.

Enrollment: 44 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 25+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

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).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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44 participants in 2 patient groups

Services as usual + Virtual Reality Job Interview Training

Experimental group

Description:

In addition to the services as usual, participants will participate in Virtual Reality Job Interview Training.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Services as usual

Behavioral: Virtual Reality Job Interview Training

Services as Usual

Active Comparator group

Description:

Study participants will be receiving their Vocational Village services as usual that may include but not limited to vocational skill training, and social skill training.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Services as usual