Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/EricaLagerson

This report presents interim findings of the Urban Institute's evaluation of the Gang Reduction Program (GRP), a $10 million, multi-year, federal initiative to reduce gang crime in Los Angeles, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; North Miami Beach, Florida; and Richmond, Virginia. The evaluation found substantial variation in collaboration levels among partners in each site, but each site achieved significant implementation successes. The effects of GRP in each site were mixed, and only one site, Los Angeles, showed a significant reduction in crime levels. By late 2007, however, three sites had undertaken significant steps towards sustaining GRP beyond the federal funding period.

This study evaluates the impact of the Maryland Reentry Partnership Initiative (REP) on crime in Baltimore between 2001 and 2005. It compares 229 REP clients to a contemporaneous cohort of 370 prisoners released to non-REP neighborhoods in Baltimore City. The quasi-experimental design tests whether REP reduced the prevalence and incidence of criminal justice contact, and whether the program was cost-beneficial. REP clients committed fewer new crimes, and that REP was cost-beneficial, returning $3 in benefits per dollar in new costs. The total net benefit to the citizens of Baltimore is $7.2 million, or $21,500 per REP participant.

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