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Legendary Legacies: Tracking the Reentry Phase for Post-Incarcerated Individuals

Project Description

Reentry in the U.S. is a complicated and multifaceted issue with many challenges facing justice-involved individuals. In collaboration with Legendary Legacies, our team developed a new approach to evaluating data in the reentry space. While historically, data collected regarding program participants have been primarily quantitative, the secret to fostering positive change may lay in the qualitative aspects of a person’s character. Through interviews with Legendary Legacies’ staff, our team identified the 15 most pertinent themes to investigate, including emotional expression, trust, and punctuality. With this information, we proposed a new way to track “success” for individuals post-incarceration.

Project Sponsor

Legendary Legacies is a non-profit organization in Worcester, Massachusetts that offers young Black and Latino men an opportunity to develop professional life skills through coaching. Since 2019, LL has supported individuals post-incarceration through mentoring, community outreach, family support services, and recreational and service opportunities.

Student Researchers

Cole Ouellette is a Computer Science and Cybersecurity student at WPI. Outside of the classroom, Cole spends time tinkering with Adobe Photoshop and practices typing as fast as possible.

Vagmi Bhagavathula is pursuing a double major in Computer Science and Data Science. His hobbies include crafting articles on the NFL, providing his own data analysis, and hanging out with friends outside of work.

Nikola Grozdani is a Computer Science student at WPI. He has a strong  interest and passion in Software Development. On his free time, he likes to work on personal programming projects, spend time with friends and family, read books, and go on car drives.

Chenhao Li is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is looking forward to using his skills and perspective in the mechanical engineering angle to help with the project.

Project Goal and Objectives

Project Goal: We will identify an effective method to track qualitative key performance indicators of successful reentry and foster data-informed decision-making at Legendary Legacies.

Project Objectives: 

  1. Gain an understanding of the existing data collection process at Legendary Legacies
  2. Investigate established means to measure qualitative key performance indicators at other reentry organizations
  3. Iteratively develop a plan to implement a new strategy for tracking successful reentry at Legendary Legacies

Final Report and Deliverables

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