Implementing Best Practice In Probation Casework

1. Implementing Best Practice In Probation Casework Why And How Vincent J. Iaria MSW , MPA Chief Probation Officer San Diego

2. Best Practice • What is evidence-based practice. • Interventions for which there is consistent scientific evidence showing improved outcomes.

3. Evidence-Based Practice Origins • Medical Profession: • Tradition • Obsolete knowledge • What MD’s learned in medical school • What MD’s do well • Patterns gleaned from experience • Information given by hordes of vendors

4. Probation Malpractice? • Banked caseloads for high risk cases • Intensive supervision of low risk cases • Outward bound programs • Scared straight • Intensive supervision without treatment. • DARE programs

5. Why Don’t We Do Evidence Based Practice • Difficult to keep track of evidence. • Evidence is not often clear cut and must be interpreted. • Implementing change is not easy. • People are trying to mislead you. • You are trying to mislead you. • It’s hard to compete with a good story.

6. What You Can Do To Advance EBP • Stop treating old ideas as if they were brand new • Be suspicious of breakthrough studies • Recognize collective brilliance • Emphasize drawbacks as well as virtues • Use success and failure stories to illustrate sound practice but not in place of research • Adopt a neutral stance toward ideologies or theories

7. Leadership Vision / Mission Statement Policy and Procedures Policy and Implementation Teams System Stakeholders / Collaboration Planning Communication Resources / Budget Recruitment and Hiring Training Performance Management Measurement Information Management Research / Evaluation Assessment and Classification Case Planning Treatment / Programs Intermediate Sanctions Implementing Evidenced-based Practice in Probation

8. EBP Implementation Requirements

9. Guiding Principles Of EBP

10. Probation Case Management

11. Criminogenic Needs • Low Self-Control • Anti-Social Personality • Anti-Social Values • Criminal Peers • Substance Abuse • Dysfunctional Family

12. Maryland Model

13. Introduction • Supervision agencies should adopt behavioral management techniques as a goal of the organization. • The behavioral management techniques should refer to actions that the staff use to achieve offender-related and organizational-related outcomes

14. Assessment And Planning • Consider the offender’s current stage of change in assigning supervision and/or treatment services. • Match the offender’s dynamic factors with appropriate services. • The offender’s risk factors should determine the supervision services. • The supervision plan should be a behavioral contract. • The behavioral contract should encompass supervision requirements, and expected sanctions and incentives. • Use problem-solving techniques with the offender to assist learning. • Alternative behaviors and reactions to triggers.

15. Stages of Offender Change

16. Offender Behavior Change • Focus on criminogenic needs (dynamic factors) to reduce the Offender’s risk of recidivism. • Improve decision-making in pro-social arenas and reduce distorted thinking patterns. • High-risk offenders should receive intensive (and structured) programs and/or services. • Develop an understanding of the offender’s prior and current behavior. • increase offender’s own understanding of their behavior patterns and the consequences of engaging in negative and/or antisocial behavior.

17. ResponsivityImpact of matching needs to risk

18. Information Tools • To acquire information about the offender and his/her behavior. • To share information shared with the offender to learn about his/her behavior patterns. • To control the behavior of the offender, • To provide feedback on his/her behavioral patterns. • To identify informal social controls. • To identify supportive relationships in the community. • To develop collateral contacts with the offender’s natural support system to achieve pro-social goals for the offender. • Use drug testing and monitoring techniques (e.g., GPS, house arrest, etc.) To control offender behavior and identify patterns.

19. Good case planning

20. Incentives to Shape Offender Behavior • use incentives to encourage and reinforce pro-social behaviors. • use incentives in a swift, certain, and progressive manner, just like sanctions, to shape offender behavior.

21. Service Tools • Supervision agencies should use service tools—treatment programs—to develop internal controls. • Supervision agencies should use service tools—treatment programs—based on the criminogenic needs of the offender.

22. Offender Types Develop minimum supervision standards in the form of practice guidelines for different types of offenders. • Ensure that the different standards are based on a solid assessment protocol, • Matches offenders to appropriate treatment and supervision services, • And establishes quarterly goals and objectives for the offender to achieve.

23. CPAI 1. Program Implementation & Leadership 2. Offender Assessment 3. Program Characteristics 4. Staff Characteristics 5. Evaluation 6. Other

24. Required Knowledge • Criminogenic needs and risk factors. • Evidence-based supervision and treatment interventions. • The process of criminal thinking. • The stages of individual change. • Social learning theory and behavior management principles. • Graduated responses to non-compliance. • Relapse prevention strategies.

25. And Skills • Conducting risk and needs assessments. • Developing probationer case plans and behavioral contracts. • Motivational enhancement techniques and motivational interviewing. • Cognitive-behavioral therapy. • Staff supervision and leading change (supervisors).

27. References • Reforming California’ s Juvenile Corrections System, Farrell v Hickman (California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation) http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/DivisionsBoards/DJJ/about/dec1report/4_safety_welfare.pdf • Implementing Effective Correctional Management of Offenders in the Community (Crime and Justice Institute) www.cjiinstitute.org • Evidence-Based Management by Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert I. Sutton (Harvard Business Review) • Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising, A Report to the US Congress (Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland) • What Works: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Correctional Practice (Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections)

28. References (Continued) • Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change William Miller, Stephen Rollnick (New York: The Guilford Press) • Tools of the Trade, A guide to Incorporating Science into Practice (National Institute of Corrections, Maryland Dept. of Public Safety and Correctional Services) • Psychotherapy, Theory, Research and Practice (Publisher Unknown) “Transtheoretical Therapy: Toward a more integrative model of change.” J.O. Prochaska and C.C. DiClemente