Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI): Marriage and Relationship Skills Education as a Way to Prepare Prisoners for Reintegration

This research brief presents the findings from a special emphasis in the process evaluation of the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI) on marriage education services within the state’s correctional system. The OMI is the nation’s longest running and most comprehensive set of state-wide programs to strengthen marriage and families and efforts to work with the Department of Corrections were begun early in the initiative. This brief describes the type of programming offered in the correctional institutions, discusses differences in the approach with men and women prisoners and discusses the implications of the implementation efforts for other states that might be interested in offering marriage and relationship skill building as a way to prepare prisoners for reintegration with their families upon release. [10 PDF pages]