Program Goals
The goal of the Florida Work Release program is to improve the recidivism outcomes of individuals reentering society from prison. The program provides a structured reentry environment to allow incarcerated persons nearing the end of their sentences to work regular jobs in the community. This program aims to help individuals arrive at their release dates with jobs and some savings.
Target Population/Eligibility
In Florida, prison officials evaluate male individuals’ readiness for work release when they have 14 months remaining on their custodial sentences. Those with a history of escape, prior work release termination, a sex offense, four or more prior incarcerations, or a violent detainer are not eligible to participate.
Approved individuals may apply to be transferred to two preferred work release centers. Unlike many prisons in Florida, which are located upstate, work release centers are spread throughout the state, and people interested in participating generally apply to a center in their county of residence.
Once a bed becomes available at a person’s requested work release center, the individual is transferred to the center and given an orientation. The participant must then be responsible for finding a job within the Florida Work Release system, which can take between 2 to 4 weeks, on average. Because of the time needed to transfer to a new facility, participate in the orientation, and search for a job, individuals with less than 60 days on their custodial sentences are not eligible for the program.
Program Components
Work release centers provide a secure environment in which to house participants during scheduled non-work hours. Even though they work unsupervised in the community, participants must maintain scheduled work hours (i.e., tardiness or leaving work early is not tolerated). Failure to return to the work release center at the scheduled time is treated seriously, classified as an escape, and can result in a return to prison. Work release center staff visit the participants in their workplace twice a week.
Most of the participants earn little more than minimum wage. In addition, wages are garnished in several ways, including 45 percent of after-tax pay to cover room and board, 10 percent of net pay for restitution or court-ordered payments, and 10 percent for family assistance or child support. Participants are also required to save 10 percent of their net pay. While they are allowed $65 per week to pay for their incidentals, they must deposit their remaining earnings into their savings accounts. (Please note that these rates reflect those in the Berk 2008 study.)
The program allows participants to develop specific work-related skills and increase their social capital. The program also allows for individuals who may only have had tenuous links and sparse experiences in the legitimate labor market to hold down a job, with the support of a highly structured environment.
Program Theory
Work release programs rely on an economic model of crime, which posits that as individuals’ prospects for gainful employment in the legal labor market improve, their criminal behavior will be reduced. When better able to earn legitimate income, a person’s motivation to commit criminal activity for personal gain is lowered, the penalty for being caught committing a criminal act is much higher, and the individual thus has “more to lose.” This would then impact the individual’s cost-benefit balance when deciding about committing future criminal acts (Berk 2008).
The program also provides an acculturation to life and peers with steady jobs in a structured environment, as well as providing participants with somewhat of a safety net upon their release from custody, which can be a very fraught period (Berk 2008).
