Data driven solution for America’s bloated prisons. SocialEffort kicks off Research Paper.

We have been privy to this sensational monologue from Newsroom.

Right around 1:42, Will McVoy articulates the three categories where ‘America leads the world’. 

Two weeks back, The Economist (June 20th, 2015) had this to report.

“America, with less than 5% of the world’s population, accounts for around 25% of the world’s prisoners. The system is particularly punishing towards black people and Hispanics, who are imprisoned at six times and twice the rates of whites respectively. A third of young black men can expect to be incarcerated at some point in their lives. The system is riddled with drugs, abuse and violence. Its cost to the American taxpayer is about $34,000 per inmate per year; the total bill is around $80 billion.”

(Left to Right - Vincent Ngo, Jerome Allen, Giri Coneti, Luciano Medina, Danielle Leong, Sean Murphy, Alim Williams, Thomas Santos)

So at SocialEffort we wanted to take on this problem head on - Can we model a cause and impact scenario that will substantially reduce incarceration rates in America? Yesterday, we kicked off a research study in collaboration with our resident data scientist and Math kid Dr. Luciano Medina and Martin Caba, one of our advisors at SocialEffort who ran the Bridge to Success program at the DOME Project, an alternative to detention and juvenile incarceration.  

We have a sample size of ‘targeted youth’ who are in detention and administered a well crafted and tested ‘Life Skills Program’.  The Life Skills Program (LFS) leads to meaningful employment opportunities when they leave detention. The following are the data points we will examine and extrapolate for this model 

·        # of kids who were moved from secured detention

·         Reduction in recidivism

·         Measurable improvements in life skills and social competencies

·         Reduction in school dropouts post-detention