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Case Study of a No-Market Approach to Reducing Recidivism: Resolve to Stop the Violence Program (RSVP)
Market Failure
U.S. recidivism rates are at about 60 percent throughout the nation. While reducing these rates would produce significant societal benefits by reducing the overall prison population, cutting down on incarceration costs, and ultimately ending up with more productive citizens, there is little hope of a market-based solution to meeting this need. Prisoners have little ability to pay. RSVP, a San Francisco–based government initiative housed in the city’s sheriff department, provides an example of a social-entrepreneurial initiative addressing a no-market opportunity.
Transformative Innovation
Dissatisfied with traditional approaches to prisoner rehabilitation, a diverse planning committee of former offenders, crime victims, and community leaders participated in the development of the RSVP model. Explains program administrator Sunny Schwartz, “We had victims’ rights advocates; formerly abusive men and gang members; orthodox rabbis, Baptist ministers, atheists; and deputy sheriffs from line staff to upper echelon. And then the usual stakeholders—probation and people on the bench.”
The resulting program differs from the usual approaches by encouraging and teaching offenders to take responsibility for their crimes. The program also includes a class that teaches offenders to experience empathy for those who have been harmed by violence. Victims of crimes work with former offenders and community stakeholders to develop the curriculum used for these classes and to participate as trainers. When offenders are released from prison, many participate in an “internship” program and receive employment training while performing restorative acts in the community. Those who are successful eventually return to the prison as facilitators of RSVP sessions. Some of the victims of the RSVP participants become advocates and work with RSVP.
RSVP’s results thus far indicate that the organization is on its way to developing a rehabilitation method for violent offenders that has the potential to transform current practices in U.S. prisons. An independent, quantitative evaluation of RSVP found that the average annual incidence rate for fights and other forms of in-prison violence for their program participants is essentially zero, compared with 28 in a traditional “lock-up” prison setting—even though the participants sleep in open dorms. Further, offenders who participated in the program for at least eight weeks had a 46 percent lower rate of re-arrest for violent crime than those who served their time in a traditional jail. This difference increased to 83 percent for those who completed at least 16 weeks of the program. Governments and organizations around the country and world have approached RSVP for advice on replicating the program, some of which has already begun.
Financial Sustainability
For no-market approaches, achieving financial sustainability requires full subsidies in order to start and maintain the initiative. One option in no-market conditions is to work within the government, where public funding is available. RSVP, whose staff is made up entirely of public employees, was able to secure predictable funding with a line item in the City of San Francisco’s budget.
Read additional case studies about Triangle Resident Options for Substance Abuse (TROSA)’s limited-market approach and Outside The Classroom’s low-profit market approach in the full chapter.
Next Week: How social entrepreneurship helps government Part I: Leveraging Public & Private Resources
U.S. recidivism rates are at about 60 percent throughout the nation. While reducing these rates would produce significant societal benefits by reducing the overall prison population, cutting down on incarceration costs, and ultimately ending up with more productive citizens, there is little hope of a market-based solution to meeting this need. Prisoners have little ability to pay. RSVP, a San Francisco–based government initiative housed in the city’s sheriff department, provides an example of a social-entrepreneurial initiative addressing a no-market opportunity.
Transformative Innovation
Dissatisfied with traditional approaches to prisoner rehabilitation, a diverse planning committee of former offenders, crime victims, and community leaders participated in the development of the RSVP model. Explains program administrator Sunny Schwartz, “We had victims’ rights advocates; formerly abusive men and gang members; orthodox rabbis, Baptist ministers, atheists; and deputy sheriffs from line staff to upper echelon. And then the usual stakeholders—probation and people on the bench.”
The resulting program differs from the usual approaches by encouraging and teaching offenders to take responsibility for their crimes. The program also includes a class that teaches offenders to experience empathy for those who have been harmed by violence. Victims of crimes work with former offenders and community stakeholders to develop the curriculum used for these classes and to participate as trainers. When offenders are released from prison, many participate in an “internship” program and receive employment training while performing restorative acts in the community. Those who are successful eventually return to the prison as facilitators of RSVP sessions. Some of the victims of the RSVP participants become advocates and work with RSVP.
RSVP’s results thus far indicate that the organization is on its way to developing a rehabilitation method for violent offenders that has the potential to transform current practices in U.S. prisons. An independent, quantitative evaluation of RSVP found that the average annual incidence rate for fights and other forms of in-prison violence for their program participants is essentially zero, compared with 28 in a traditional “lock-up” prison setting—even though the participants sleep in open dorms. Further, offenders who participated in the program for at least eight weeks had a 46 percent lower rate of re-arrest for violent crime than those who served their time in a traditional jail. This difference increased to 83 percent for those who completed at least 16 weeks of the program. Governments and organizations around the country and world have approached RSVP for advice on replicating the program, some of which has already begun.
Financial Sustainability
For no-market approaches, achieving financial sustainability requires full subsidies in order to start and maintain the initiative. One option in no-market conditions is to work within the government, where public funding is available. RSVP, whose staff is made up entirely of public employees, was able to secure predictable funding with a line item in the City of San Francisco’s budget.
Read additional case studies about Triangle Resident Options for Substance Abuse (TROSA)’s limited-market approach and Outside The Classroom’s low-profit market approach in the full chapter.
Next Week: How social entrepreneurship helps government Part I: Leveraging Public & Private Resources
