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A Shift in Thinking in Community Corrections
I turned 54 when I started writing this post. So... I’m “old” (at least that is what my four kids tell me). Another birthday simply means I have personally experienced many shifts in business and information technology in the past half century including but not limited to the following:
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Mainframes taking whole floors of buildings to networked devices that practically disappear into our surroundings
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Transaction systems in isolated silos to enterprise database systems that allow rapid integration and collaboration
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Large scale custom software projects to highly configurable "off the shelf" software products
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Simple single function web sites to comprehensive Enterprise web portals
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Cloud technologies such as Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
So what does my technology and software experience have to do with today’s community corrections business?
What problem are we solving?
I believe the most significant problem facing every community corrections agency in America and abroad is the shift in thinking brought on by Evidence Based Principles (EBP). Not convinced it is that big of a shift? Let’s review the fundamentals and the practical impact of EBP:
Big Change… Small Change?
Ask yourself; is this kind of change a small change to the operations of a typical community corrections agency? Right, it’s not a small change. Question is… how is management supposed to support this shift at the local level? (Please note that this to-do list is not a pick and choose list, each item depends on the others.)
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Front Line Behavior Change: Everyone (i.e., front desk, security, treatment, case managers, management) who interacts with a client must be on the same page. Every client’s potential for success lies in how well an agency integrates its purpose and mission into the fabric of each staff member’s role.
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Culture of Measurement and Feedback: Instead of waiting for an oversight agency to show up for their annual audit with lots of questions and a 30-page report with action items, beat them to it! Be intentional about what you are going to measure and do it. Observe your progress and celebrate successes, value mistakes and adjust processes readily. Success in the new community corrections industry is largely defined by being nimble and flexible while others are defending the status quo.
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Data and Information is Key: It is now possible with fully paperless and EBP-enabling information systems to integrate security, treatment, medical and financial functions with overall case management, supervision, and outcome measures. The fundamentals of the community corrections “enterprise” have changed. Your information system, the backbone of your operations, must live up to the challenge as well. Without easy access to data at all levels of an organization, there is no hope for achieving the shift in thinking called for by the EBP movement. Every community is different, agencies need to drive change based on local data!
Proven Paths
Sounds like a tall order doesn’t it? The good news is that there are proven paths for this kind of transformation. The transformation I see underway in the community corrections field is not unlike much of what has already occurred in corporate America (my initial experience being IBM’s seismic shift to a solutions/services company beginning in 1990). Beginning in the early to mid-90s, quality processes and metrics began to take root in how companies of all sizes set and achieved:
- The right measurements
- How to redefine work itself
- How and where to automate for greatest impact
- How to turn loose the power of highly skilled professionals and leave the mundane tasks to computer automation
The benefit that the corrections industry has in 2015 is that modern-day information systems technologies, implementation science, and meaningful research on “what works” exist. Better yet, the easy methods for remote access to information anytime from anywhere is ubiquitous and systems implementation costs are down by a factor of 10 since the corporate transformations began in the early 1990s.
Where to Start?
In order to get to where you want to be, you have to first know where you currently are. Let’s assume you have nailed it on Motivational Interviewing training and deployment in your agency, you have fully modernized your risk assessment processes, and you have adjusted your interventions according to client risk level. You are probably thinking, “Are we there yet?” A quick way to know is to ask yourself a few simple questions:
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"Can I use my agency information system as a decision support system and determine how our interventions are going for various client populations?
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Where are we doing well, this month, last year…?
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Which case managers are doing better at recognizing prosocial behavior?…”
You get the idea.
To me, this is a bit of career déjà vu. I was a young manager at IBM in the late 80’s, when the question was posed “Shouldn’t IBM just give up, split up and sell itself off?” When IBM identified that the future was in complex solutions and professional services, not just hardware and proprietary software, everyone doubted the shift could actually happen. Some refused to get onboard and others dragged their feet, but the future always belongs to progress. Individuals who didn't just tolerate change but embraced it helped IBM transform and become a leader many times over in the decades to follow. No doubt, the same will happen in community corrections. You coming along?
In weeks to come, I will be writing about a series of topics pertinent to these questions:
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No more islands of automation… or mountains of paperwork
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For EBP to come alive in our agencies, we must measure everything
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Why urgency in IT support matters
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Is there such a thing as an “EBP Data System”?
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Once I have an “EBP Data System”, then what?
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