Cash Transfers for Reentry

Investigators will execute a mixed methods randomized controlled trial to determine the impacts of cash transfers of $1,000 per month for one month followed by $750 for eleven months. Investigators will measure the impacts of the cash transfers on physical and mental health, housing stability, healthcare utilization, financial stability, and interactions with the criminal legal system.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Incarceration; Poverty
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Cash transfer

Detailed Description

The transition from incarceration to community reintegration represents a finite time period of unique challenges, often exacerbated by fines and other structural constraints associated with limited access to housing, the workforce, and public benefits. As such, individuals exiting prisons are most vulnerable for recidivism and other poor wellbeing outcomes during the initial period after their release.

The project will enroll approximately 200 individuals in the Omaha, NE area to receive cash transfers over a one year period. Another 250 will be assigned to the control group and will not receive the cash transfers but will be eligible to participate in research activities. Adults exiting Nebraska state prisons will be eligible to participate if they are exiting prison during the specified time frame and do not have a conviction of a sex crime or homicide.

Longitudinal repeated measures will be utilized through surveys conducted at baseline, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 month intervals. Future involvement with the criminal legal system will be measured using linked administrative data from the Department of Corrections. A select group of 30 participants across study groups will also be invited to participate in in-depth interviews with a CGIR research scientist and team at multiple time points.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 450
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Stacia West Principle Investigator, PhD; Phone Number: 215-898-5512; Email: west.stacia@gmail.com

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion criteria:

• Aged 18 or older
• Exiting Nebraska state prisons during the study enrollment period

Exclusion criteria:

- Conviction of a sex crime or homicide

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; No intervention
Experimental: Treatment; Recipients of stipend	Other: Cash transfer; Provision on monthly cash transfer

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Post-release compliance with payment of fees	Compliance/non-compliance with post-release payment of fees. A count of fee payments (continuous) and on-time payment as a binary outcome variable (y/n) for each instance.	1 year post release date or for the duration of required supervision, whichever is sooner
Recidivism	As applied to adults, recidivism shall mean a final conviction of a Class I or II misdemeanor, a Class IV felony or above, or a Class W misdemeanor based on a violation of state law within 1 year of being successfully released.	1 year following release date
Post-release compliance with conditions	Compliance/non-compliance with post-release conditions. A count of instances for each condition bounded by dates of conditions imposed.	1 year post release date or for the duration of required supervision, whichever is sooner

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Housing status	Housing status (e.g., renter, homeowner, rent-to-own, etc.) reported in the prior month.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months
Food security (Household Food Insecurity Access Scale)	9 items to assess past four week food insecurity: 1) worry about not having enough food, 2) inability to eat preferred foods, 3) eating a limited variety of foods, 4) having to eat foods that they did not want to eat, 5) eating a smaller meal than needed, 6) eating fewer meals in a day, 7) having no food to eat, 8) going to sleep at night hungry, and 9) going a whole day and night without eating. Items scored as "yes" (1) or "no" (0).	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months
Employment	Employment status as measured by one item with attributes per the U.S. Department of Labor.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months
Financial wellbeing (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Financial Wellbeing Scale)	Each item is scored 0 to 4 and summed to a total. The sum total is then converted to a total response value on the CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale score from 0-100, where higher scores indicate a greater sense of financial well-being.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months
Psychological distress (Kessler 6)	Each item is scored from zero "none of the time" to four "all of the time." Scores of the 6 items are then summed, yielding a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 24. Low scores indicate low levels of psychological distress and high scores indicate high levels of psychological distress.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months
General health	Self-reported general health as measured by one question from the SF-36: "In general, would you say your health is:", with a 5-point scale from Poor to Excellent.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months
Substance use (UNCOPE)	Six items, each scored 0 (no) or 1 (yes). A score of two or more indicates possible substance misuse.	Baseline, 6 months, 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Amy Castro, PhD, The University of Pennsylvania; Principal Investigator: Stacia West, PhD, The University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): June 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 15, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 15, 2029

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 17, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 2, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): December 4, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 22, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 16, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: incarceration; cash transfer; recidivism
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Criminal Behavior; Recidivism
• Other Study ID Numbers: 11235 (DAIDS ES Registry Number)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No