Evaluation of the User Voice Prison and Community Councils

The research had five objectives: 1. to evaluate the effectiveness of the Councils in addressing the outcomes and goals delineated in the Theory of Change and participant journey; 2. to evaluate the success of the Councils in meeting commissioners’ objectives and priorities; 3. to identify consistent and rigorous data collection methods across the projects and across time which can measure performance, impacts and outcomes as outlined in the Theory of Change; 4. to evaluate the Council model and operational and administrative processes used; and 5. to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the pilots, in order to assess their ability to offer added value and efficiency to prisoner engagement and community reintegration.