Tarrant County CSCD Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE)

The Second Chance Act of 2007 provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of people who are released from prison and jail and returning to communities, including resources to address the myriad needs of these offenders to achieve a successful return to their communities. Under the Second Chance Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-199, Sec 245), the Honest Opportunity Probation and Enforcement (HOPE) Demonstration Field Experiment (DFE) provides funding to states, units of local government, territories, and federally recognized Indian tribes (as determined by the Secretary of the Interior) in an effort to enhance public safety and to improve the outcomes of probationers.

BJA and the National Institute of Justice(NIJ) are supporting this multisite Demonstration Field Experiment (DFE) in an effort to enhance public safety and to improve the outcomes of probationers. This DFE will combine a multisite demonstration of the Hawaii HOPE model with a rigorous experimental evaluation in an applied setting. This DFE will consist of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), in which the costs associated with program implementation will be funded by BJA, and costs associated with the evaluation will be funded by NIJ.

The grant recipient will use the FY 2011 SCA grant funds to support an experimental design with a progressively expanding caseload of high risk offenders to test the impact of the HOPE model. Ongoing data collection throughout the designated project period will allow the research coordinator to ascertain the impact of the program. The primary goal of the project is to promote an increase in successful probation outcomes. Goal achievement met through this strategy will be determined using an experimental design and collection of grant required data to evaluate reductions in offender violations of probation and drug usage.

CA/NCF