Roseland, NJ, Aug 7, 2007 - Dr. Ralph Fretz, Director of Assessment and Research at Community Education Centers Inc. (CEC), authored a recently published article entitled “Reentry Programming and Female Offenders: The Case for a Gender-Responsive Approach.” The article was published in the spring edition of the Journal of Community Corrections and was co-authored by Dr. Angela Mims, Administrator of Women’s Programming and Services at CEC and Jacey Erikson, Drexel University Researcher.

“CEC takes great pride in the gender-specific programs we provide across the nation. As more women are incarcerated in America, CEC is proud to be part of the effort to provide these women with meaningful and effective reentry treatment services,” said Dr. Fretz.

CEC provides gender-specific reentry treatment programs for females in New Jersey, Indiana, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Delaware, Washington, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and South Dakota. This article describes the ways in which effective female programming can be developed using evidence-based practices.

In fact, recent evidence-based research has confirmed the effectiveness of CEC’s female reentry programs. CEC’s most recent outcome-based study, “Female Offender Outcome Research,” showed an average 50% reduction in recidivism for female offenders participating in the Bo-Robinson female offender program compared to a similar group of female offenders from the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC).

The authors of the article, Dr. Fretz and Dr. Mims, will both present at the ICCA annual research conference in San Diego in October.