Community Corrections has been a big part of the criminal justice system. It is used as an alternative to imprisonment. The United States costs have risen in the last twenty years, these costs have come from building more jails and prisons. Policy makers needed to come up with a solution that could help cut these costs, and also stop overcrowding in prisons. Many states are on community- based corrections now. So the question is how can evidence-based practices in community corrections effectively manage offenders without compromising safety? To be able to meet this challenge it requires correction leaders to the use the most effective resources and focus on giving services that prove to reduce offender recidivism. Some examples of community corrections are parole and probation. Both systems watch convicted offenders and sometimes use the same sanctions and rehabilitation programs, but work differently. For instance, offenders on probation serve their sentencing in the community instead of being incarcerated. On the other hand, an offender on parole served time in prison but was granted to be let out in the community; due to maybe good behavior or time served expired. As policy makers now focus to have community- based corrections, probation agencies are stepping up to the plate as a leader. Probation higher ups are having the challenge to help lower these pressures by handling the growing number of offenders within the community. Instead of sending these offenders to prison, we can use this new program but still need to try to maintain the safety of public. Researcher studies have shown that criminal justice agencies can really reduce offender recidivism by implementing a series of evidence based practices. Evidence practices are programs or tests proven to have positive outcomes through research and have consistent good patterns of results. This is called an integrated model of implementation, it is evidence -based practices that requires agencies to change the way they think and operate there

Business. The model consists of three components evidence-based practices, organizational development, and collaboration. It takes commitment and leadership to implement this model and for it to become successful. So the first component evidence-based practice is to search for the proper techniques to implement that can lower recidivism rates. The model shows eight principals that are important and can be effective for offender interventions. The community organization that does the better job enforcing and maintaining offender interventions and supervision practices using these principals will have great results. These principals will work best for high-risk offenders because we use an assessment to figure out their criminogenic needs. This is the first principal where we assess the actual risk or need of the offender, then the motivation. The third principal is the target interventions, where it is focus on the risk, need, responsivity, dosage and treatment. The assess actuarial risk/need is when an ongoing offender risk screening and needs assessments are conducted. Helping the offenders in a patience valid manner. These tools will focus on the risk factors profile criminogenic needs and been validated on similar populations preferred. Offender assessment is a factor that needs to always have a follow up. It is case information that is done by observing and having interactions with the offender. Then there is the enhance motivation; this is where it is time for the staff to become more compassionate towards these offenders. Show them there not in it alone to change their behavioral ways. This is a method that should be used by all probation officers, treatment providers, and institution staff. Research strongly encourages using motivational techniques, rather then persuasion tactics have a better effect on behavioral change. The target interventions of risk are to prioritize supervision and treatment resources for high-risk offenders. To work on the ones who are likely to re-offend more, focusing on these offenders can lower harm reduction and provide better public safety. Examples of what the criminogenic needs are their criminal personality, if they are antisocial with peers, and what their values and beliefs are. Also they check to see what their family history looks like, as well if there is any substance abuse involved. It is important to be able to run these type of assessments on the offenders, because it gives us a better idea on type of treatment they should receive. Then there is the response principal, the responsively requires to see the characteristics of the offender and be able to match the best services to them. Some of the characteristics that can help determine this would be, culture, gender. Also, the motivation stages, the developmental and learning styles are important as well. These are ways that can help factors show how the offender will react to the different type of treatments. Next would be the dosage principal, which determines how much treatment and how long the offender should receive. Studies show that higher risk offenders should have longer treatments then lower risk offenders. For instance , offenders who suffer severely mental problems should have extended care services. Studies show that if offenders are not properly treated for a significant time, it can have negative effects on the whole process. Then the last target intervention would be the treatment principal. Mostly the cognitive-behavioral type treatment should be given as an integral part of sentence or sanction process. There has to be a great amount of commitment and proactive approach to the way cases are handled and planned. The offender needs to be the priority and be able to give the right treatment in a timely manner. Then after your target interventions you still have your other basic principals that help implement that model. For example, skills training using methods to treat cognitive-behavioral. This takes a lot of hard work from the staff, because they need to understand antisocial thinking, how to be sociable and be able to have great communication skills. To promote they can use role-playing with the offenders. Where they act out their feelings and attitudes towards an issue they may have. After they role play then the correction staff will discuss what happened and make positive suggestions to help the problem. Another based evidence principal would be to increase the positive reinforcement. Making sure that the new skills to make a better impact on behavioral changes continues to happen. Especially when the offender has a negative outburst, try to make it into a more positive situation. Show what can be learned from the experience and how it can make a negative into a positive effect. Then there is the principal where you can engage on-going support in natural communities. Get offenders involved in the community with pro-social support groups, that can offer interventions for high-risk offender populations. There is a program called (CRA) which means Community Reinforcement Approach. It has been known to be good with a variety of behaviors, for people unemployed or under substance abuse, or have marital problems. This program offers religious activities, restorative justice programs to improve the pro-social community. Principal seven is to provide measurement feedback. By providing feedback to the offenders about their status, on how their treatment process is going. This is a great way to help their motivation, and continue to have good outcomes. If correction agencies are able to follow these evidence-based principals, it can have a great impact on reductions of recidivism. So after you can conclude your evidence practices, then the next component step would be organizational development. This is an important component because it focuses on assessments, intervention and monitoring or taking measurements of offenders. Therefore, for it to become effectively successful it starts within the agency. How the management needs to become better organized how the business is ran. If there are areas within the facility that needs work to be done, then these changes need to be made for the best of the offender. Some examples of these changes are, how the staff is recruited or hired. How the staff corresponds in their job duties, or what type of work feedback they receive. Interaction among other employees, and how they treat the offenders is very important. It is major concern on how the staff interacts with offenders in these facilities. For example, there has been issues reported of bad misconduct by the probation officer or correction officer. Reasons can be that they were being unprofessional with their clients. These are things that need to be addressed within the agency of the staff. Strategies that can be used to implement improve these areas are developing leadership skills. Create a vision and communicate it among the staff, in areas that need to be improved. Make the strategies to focus on achieving the vision’s goals. Also. Recognize that there were mistakes made, and how it has effected the conditions now. Have a plan on how the issues will be managed and taken care of so it is prevented in the future. Strong and flexible organized leadership is the goal to successful changes. It is especially true, when it comes to the reality of public safety system. The last component is collaboration. This is an equally important subject of implementing a good system change within the complex web of correction communitys and providers. They all come together to work with one another and achieve the common goals. The purpose of collaboration is for the agencies to work together and have more of a shared authority, instead of it being more of a domination. Studies show that there are better results done when organizations work together then alone. The public safety system includes a lot of entities, from prisons and police agencies to religious community organizations . When planning and implementation occurs for change in corrections, it can result in reducing recidivism rates. When all these community agencies get together more will get done successfully then one sector working alone. There are certain strategies that need to be followed so the collaboration runs smoothly. The first strategie is include the right people and agencies. This is to help and focus on the external entities. Participants need to be all present at the table and be able to give efficiency, and provide good communication skills. Then there is the develop sufficient structure strategie, that helps collaboration. There needs to be enough resources that can provide room for improvement for the agencies. Lastly, there is the invest of right amount of resources and effort to sustain collaboration. This is the step where all the resources and ideas are put all together, and put to work. Also, It is important that there is good effective information that is being enforced. In conclusion, these are all the steps and principals that make the integrated model of implementation. Studies have shown that agencies that use this model has had good success and actually helped lowering recidivism rates. Treatment for high-risk offenders should be the best choice to help recidivism. It is not constructed for lower-risk offenders becaue there not in the system for long. On the other hand, a high-risk offender who is going to be in the system for a long time it is worth getting the right treatment. The main goal is so re-offending does not occur again. Also, another important factor is so these offenders get the best treatment base on their criminogenic needs. The main focus should be their social behavior because if we target these specific characteristics, we can have a much more successful intervention. Evidence-based practices have a much more positive outcome, then incarceration. As well, it helps with the costs of building more prisons and jails. It gives the offender an opportunity to rehabilitate and be able to go out in society and become a productive citizen.

References

1) ‘’What Works? Evidence-Based Practices in Parole and Probation.’’ February 2,2008. William,Thomas,H.
2) ‘’Evidence-Based Sentencing: The Application of Principles of Evidence-Based Practice to State Sentencing Practice and Policy. (2009) Warren, Roger, K.
3) ‘’ Evidence-Based Practice: A framework for twenty-first century scientist-practioner training. Chwalisz, Kathleen. (Sep, 2003)