Learning about the Person Overview
Many community supervision agencies across the country have adopted a risk assessment to help assess the likelihood that a person will engage in new criminal behavior and to identify their criminogenic needs. While risk assessments are important, we should begin to think about the person in a larger context than just risk and needs. This next set of videos will help us put the risk/need assessment into a greater context, one which begins to explore with the person on supervision what they see as their best self, where they see themselves currently, and what is blocking them from getting there.
Introduction to Assessments
It is important that we collect as much accurate information about the person on supervision as early in the relationship as possible so that we can build practical and helpful paths forward. Once we have established our role as helping a person be their best self, the next step is to give some context to the assessment process and to help the person understand why we are conducting the assessment, what information we are collecting, and how it will be used. As you will see, we start with setting the context and acknowledge that they may have given information to others through the court process but that we want to hear from them directly. From there, we will want to let them know that the areas we will be covering in the assessment and that the results will be used to build their success plan.
Sharing Information from the Assessment Process
While officers have been trained on how to conduct an assessment and score it accurately, the training rarely includes how to share the results of the assessment. As we broaden the role of assessment to more than completing a risk/needs assessment, we also want to reconsider how the results of the assessment are shared with people on supervision. As we know from the medical field, having a person understand the assessment, be invested in the results, and empowered to work on any areas of concern is key to improving one’s life. As you will see in the video, the officer starts with reconnecting to the person’s picture of success reminding them why the assessment is important. From there, the officer is interested in ensuring that the information gathered accurately reflects what the person believes about themselves. This provides an opportunity to clarify any discrepancies between what we learned about the person on supervision and what they believe. Next, the officer engages in a conversation about strengths or protective factors and then discusses what is standing in the person’s way of reaching their best self. When the assessment process is built upon a supportive, coaching relationship it is easier to share the results of the assessment given the clear purpose is to help design a plan for the person on supervision to be successful.
What Does Success Look Like?
To better understand how we can help people on supervision, we must understand what success looks like for them and how we can help them reach their best self. While risk/needs assessments are usually limited to what a person has done over the past 12 months, we want to make sure as we move forward that we also capture where the person on supervision would like to be in the near future (12 to 36 months). Discussing what success looks like for the person on supervision will help them paint a picture of their best self—helping us create a direct link to where they are and what is standing in the way of reaching their best self. In this video, you will see the officer exploring ways to help the person identify what they want in their life across employment, relationships, mental and physical health, and their social life. It is important to capture a wholistic picture of what the person on supervision wants so that we can help them achieve their best self. At times, the person on supervision will not be able to articulate what they want or even may offer a perspective that supports ongoing criminal behavior. If this happens, we will want to continue to explore ways to help them see that they can reach their best self without engaging in crime.
Where are you now?
In contrast to “What Does Success Look Like?”, “Where Are You Now?” relates to the person painting as accurate picture of where they are today in regard to employment, relationships, health, and social life. We will use this approach to ask questions that would help us gather information to score the traditional risk/needs assessment. We want to learn about where the person stands in relationship to their best self—recognizing that we all have work to do to get ourselves there. In the video, you will see the officer start to explore the major life areas to better understand where the person stands today.
What Keeps You From Getting There?
Now that we better understand where people want to be (their best self) and where they are, we will want to explore what is blocking them (or in cognitive-behavioral theory—what is maintaining their current conditions) from being their best self. Sometimes those barriers can be a lack of resources. Maybe a person wants to get a better job but given their childcare or transportation needs they are unable to switch positions. Other times the barriers are more internal. A lack of motivation or self-efficacy could be blocking them from getting to their best self. And other times it may be a criminogenic need like a current substance use issue. Regardless of internal, external, or behavioral needs, we want to help the person identify what is standing in their way from their best self so we can build dynamic plans to their better self.
Resource List
Learn About the Person
Bucklen, Kristofer Bret, and Gary Zajac (2009). “But Some of Them Don’t Come Back (to Prison!) Resource Deprivation and Thinking Errors as Determinants of Parole Success and Failure” The Prison Journal, 89(3): 239-264.
Abstract: This article reports on a study of the causes and correlates of parole success and failure in Pennsylvania. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups were conducted with parole violators and parole successes. Data were collected on employment, housing, social relations, supervision, and parolees’ responses to parole challenges. The primary correlates of parole failure were found to be antisocial attitudes, poor problem-solving and coping skills, and unrealistic expectations about life after release from prison. Contrary to expectations, this study found little evidence that job acquisition or housing were significant parole challenges. The greatest problem for parolees was managing themselves in a prosocial manner while facing demands from their environment.
Viglione, Jill, Danielle S. Rudes, and Faye S. Taxman (2015). “"Misalignment in Supervision: Implementing Risk/Needs Assessment Instruments in Probation." Criminal Justice and Behavior, 42(3): 263-285.
Abstract: Risk and needs assessment (RNA) tools are well regarded as a critical component of a community corrections organization implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs), given the potential impact of using such tools on offender-level and system outcomes. The current study examines how probation officers (POs) use a validated RNA tool in two adult probation settings. Using interview and observational data, this study explores how POs use an assessment tool during all facets of their work from preplanning, routine administrative tasks, and face-to-face case management interactions with probation clients. Findings suggest POs overwhelmingly administer the RNA tool, but rarely link the RNA scores to key case management or supervision decisions. These findings highlight some of the challenges and complexities associated with the application of RNA tools in everyday practice. Study implications emphasize the need to modify current probation practices to create a synergy between the RNA and related supervision practices. Findings from this study contribute to a better appreciation for how the new penology integrates risk management with client-centered case models to improve outcomes.
Introduction to Assessments
Viglione, Jill (2019). “The Risk-Need-Responsivity Model: How Do Probation Officers Implement the Principles of Effective Intervention?” Criminal Justice and Behavior, 46(5): 655-673.
Abstract: The advancement of evidence-based practices (EBP) and the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model suggests several key practices for probation agencies, including validated risk and needs assessments and appropriate treatment matching. Despite evidence supporting use of practices aligned with the RNR model to improve offender outcomes, research identifies significant implementation challenges in probation practice. Using 1,084 hours of ethnographic data, the current study sought to examine how probation staff implemented best practices aligned with the risk, need, and responsivity principles. Analyses suggest probation staff supervision practices misaligned with research evidence on RNR and associated agency trainings. Probation officers rarely used the risk and needs assessment to inform supervision decisions, creation of case plans, and referrals to treatment programs. Findings highlight the challenges associated with moving evidence on the RNR model to routine probation practice. Implications for policy and research are discussed, including a focus on perceived liability and implementation of best practices.
Bucklen, Kristofer Bret, Duwe, Grant and Taxman, Faye S. (2021). “Guidelines for Post-Sentencing Risk Assessment.” Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 2021, NCJ 300654, https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/300654.pdf .
Abstract: This paper is devoted to an important topic — risk and needs assessment (RNA) instruments for post-sentencing decision-making. It is primarily about risk assessment, but the principles also apply to needs assessments. In this paper, we discuss four principles that we believe are the most critical to guide both the design and implementation of datainformed decision-making tools: fairness, efficiency, effectiveness, and communication. Although there are other principles, our collective experience reveals that attention to these dimensions would benefit practitioners, researchers, industry leaders, and the general public. In particular, we believe that practitioners should understand the facets of quality RNA tools to ensure that their agency benefits from using state-of-the art design processes and implementing them to achieve high fidelity to the goals of proper prediction. Researchers will benefit from a visible set of guidelines to ensure that their partnerships with practitioners achieve the same goals of high-quality design and implementation.
Sharing Information from the Assessment Process
King, Christopher M. and Heilbrun, Kirk (2021). “Effects of Criminogenic Risk-Needs Assessment Feedback During Prerelease Correctional Rehabilitation.” Criminal Justice and Behavior, 48(5): 575-595.
Abstract: This pre–post follow-up randomized trial investigated the receptiveness and responsiveness of 82 incarcerated men undergoing reentry to feedback (discussion-based, form-based, or none–minimal) regarding their criminogenic risk–needs assessment results. Both short-term outcomes (self-perceived risk–needs, motivation for change, treatment readiness, and feedback satisfaction) and longer-term outcomes (intuitional conduct, rearrest, or halfway house return) were examined. As hypothesized, among study completers (n = 67), motivation for change was significantly higher following discussion feedback, and both feedback formats were rated favorably by participants. Contrary to hypotheses, feedback recipients, including those who showed gains at post, did not appear reliably distinct from others on longer-term outcomes; nor were most outcomes significantly associated with baseline risk scores. Feedback about risk and needs may be useful in correctional treatment for motivation enhancement and treatment orienting, but special attention to measurement, contextual, and intensity factors is warranted.
Finn, Stephen E. and Tonsager, Mary E. (1997). “Information-Gathering and Therapeutic Models of Assessment Complementary Paradigms.” Psychological Assessment, 9(4): 374-385.
Abstract: The authors reviewed the other articles in the special section and commented on the use of psychological assessment to plan treatment. They call this view of assessment the information-gathering paradigm, because the goal is to collect data that will aid in communication and decision making about clients. This contrasts with the therapeutic model of assessment, in which the major goal is to produce positive change in clients. The authors summarized evidence of the efficacy of assessment as a brief therapy and discussed its possible therapeutic mechanisms. The information-gathering and therapeutic models of assessment are complementary rather than mutually exclusive, and both speak to the utility of assessment. The current crisis in the clinical use of psychological assessment may be due in part to an overemphasis on the information-gathering model.
Nahouli, Zacharia, Jay-Marie Mackenzie, Andreas Aresti, and Coral Dando (2023). "Rapport Building with Offenders in Probation Supervision: The Views of English Probation Practitioners." Probation Journal, 70(2): 104-123.
Abstract: Rapport-based supervision in probation is linked to positive behavioural change and reduced reoffending for probation service users. However, the process of rapport building is not well documented in probation practice. This study conducted focus groups and interviews with London-based probation practitioners to understand their views of rapport when supervising service users. Thematic analysis generated five themes related to how practitioners facilitated rapport building and maintenance, as well as several barriers that exist towards building and maintaining rapport – these were conceptualised as a rapport-building process. We provide recommendations to help alleviate barriers and further facilitate the rapport-building process.
What Does Success Look Like?
Barry, Monica (2021). “’Walking on Ice’: The Future of Parole in a Risk-Obsessed Society.” Theoretical Criminology, 25(2): 325-342.
Abstract: The aim of risk assessment and management in criminal justice is increasingly about minimizing opportunities to create harm to the public rather than maximizing opportunities to create change in offenders. This seems to be particularly the case in respect of parole, where the balance of public protection with rehabilitation has become increasingly unstable in prioritizing the former. This article examines parole decision making and management within the UK from the perspectives of both high risk offenders on licence and parole professionals. It discusses two key drivers to burgeoning recall rates: the stringency of licence conditions and the propensity of professionals to recall in the name of risk elimination rather than risk reduction. The article concludes that the effectiveness of parole is in question, not least in enabling reentry and reintegration of high risk prisoners. In particular, the future sustainability of parole itself is deemed to be under threat.
Lovins, Brian K., Francis T. Cullen, Edward J. Latessa, and Cheryl Lero Jonson (2018). “Probation Officer as a Coach: Building a New Professional Identity” Federal Probation, 82.
Abstract: In many agencies, probation officers have been encouraged or been permitted to follow the job role of "referee." Because research links supervision effectiveness to officers having quality relationships with offenders, adopting a human service orientation, and using correctional skills, the authors propose that the job role of "coach" aligns more closely with this evidence.
Where Are You Now?
Bucklen, Kristofer Bret, and Gary Zajac (2009). “But Some of Them Don’t Come Back (to Prison!) Resource Deprivation and Thinking Errors as Determinants of Parole Success and Failure” The Prison Journal, 89(3): 239-264.
Abstract: This article reports on a study of the causes and correlates of parole success and failure in Pennsylvania. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups were conducted with parole violators and parole successes. Data were collected on employment, housing, social relations, supervision, and parolees’ responses to parole challenges. The primary correlates of parole failure were found to be antisocial attitudes, poor problem-solving and coping skills, and unrealistic expectations about life after release from prison. Contrary to expectations, this study found little evidence that job acquisition or housing were significant parole challenges. The greatest problem for parolees was managing themselves in a prosocial manner while facing demands from their environment.
Cullen, Francis. (2022). “The end of American exceptionalism: An enlightened corrections.” Criminology & Public Policy, 21(4): 769-786.
Abstract: The United States is at a turning point in the history of corrections. Suddenly and surprisingly, the era of mass incarceration ended around 2010. Since that time, prison populations, public punitiveness, and get‐tough rhetoric have declined. A challenging question remains, however: Now what? Doing more of the same is foolish but likely. Prison reform is inhibited by the twin realities that states have limited budgets and have existing prisons that are rarely shuttered. New thinking is needed to move beyond these restrictions. One guide for a cognitive shift is Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now in which he argues that sustained improvement in human well‐being in the United States and across the globe is due to the Enlightenment principles of reason, science, humanism, and progress. In this context, an “enlightened corrections” is possible in which policies and practices are evaluated by the four ideals articulated by Pinker. As one example, mass imprisonment is shown to be irrational, unscientific, inhumane, and bereft of a future. By contrast, more promising policies seek to nourish offenders by offering redemption and by using community supervision to build quality relationships that provide a means for targeting risk factors for intervention. The key policy implication is the proposal to place prison reform within the Biden Administration's support for infrastructure improvement. Funded by the federal government, a “Build Back Better Prison Experiment” would be undertaken in which 10 experimental prisons—designed from a clean slate and selected through a competition—would be created and evaluated. The goal is to establish prisons that are rational in their planning, are evidence based, improve offenders’ lives, and foster a new era of progress in American corrections.
What’s Keeping You From Getting There?
Bucklen, Kristofer Bret, and Gary Zajac (2009). “But Some of Them Don’t Come Back (to Prison!) Resource Deprivation and Thinking Errors as Determinants of Parole Success and Failure” The Prison Journal, 89(3): 239-264.
Abstract: This article reports on a study of the causes and correlates of parole success and failure in Pennsylvania. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups were conducted with parole violators and parole successes. Data were collected on employment, housing, social relations, supervision, and parolees’ responses to parole challenges. The primary correlates of parole failure were found to be antisocial attitudes, poor problem-solving and coping skills, and unrealistic expectations about life after release from prison. Contrary to expectations, this study found little evidence that job acquisition or housing were significant parole challenges. The greatest problem for parolees was managing themselves in a prosocial manner while facing demands from their environment.