Fun with Data Management…. Really?

How many of you community corrections practitioners dread pulling together month end, quarter end or worse…year end program results? 

So, you are wondering why I would include “fun” in the same sentence as data management.  What’s more surprising is it’s me who is having fun with data management.  I am not a big data person.  Research, spreadsheets, data analysis, not my cup of tea. Include me in on a problem solving, “what works” or implementation discussion and I’ll let someone else do all the research. 

However, you’d be surprised how much better data can be when you don’t have to do any data entry to view basic and complex data analysis for your community corrections program operations.  

Check out an example of just one way we make data fun in our newest data management video “Fun with Data Management - Monitor History”.

What we learned about the Opioid Crisis at the 2017 ICCA Conference in Seattle

The Opposite of Addiction is not Sobriety.  This may have been the most powerful statement we heard at the ICCA conference where researchers and practitioners of many fields and backgrounds came together to learn, share information and knowledge; pushing each other to keep learning and doing more in our pursuit to do what works best.  Community Corrections has never been short of challenges and barriers.  It is encouraging to see dedicated professionals working hard to break through.

The conference encompassed workshops surrounding some of these challenges, including the opioid crisis, relapse prevention, housing and employment, and our jails being filled with a large amount of people with significant mental illness and trauma.  While there were many outstanding workshops at the Seattle conference, in this blog we will talk about discussions and community corrections solutions with relationship to the opioid crisis.

The Opioid Crisis

Who are some of the people who have been impacted directly by this crisis? 

Our reflections of APPA 2017 from the inside, outside and beyond.

Last month we found ourselves positioned in a good space as we went about setting up our booth at APPA’s 42nd Annual Training Institute, held this year in a particularly exciting place, New York City. We were positioned on the Expo floor at a busy nexus of booths and buffet tables, and our team reconnected with and met practitioners from all over the country. Each brought their knowledge, progressive nature and passion for EBP. We attended several interesting sessions as well, which highlighted important challenges facing the corrections industry.

The Big Apple proved the perfect backdrop for APPA, and we explored some of the city’s unique places. Following are a few highlights from inside the conference, activities outside it, and challenges going forward.

Criminal Justice Reform is on the Move and 9 other things I learned at the Oregon Justice Reinvestment Summit:

one: Although the event was in Oregon, speakers from around the country made it clear that criminal justice reform is on the rise nationwide.

two: Pretrial research has uncovered that being locked up for three or more days while awaiting a hearing can cause very serious unintended repercussions for that individual, including a 4% increased risk that the person will recidivate.

three: Oregon was recently selected as one of three states to participate in the National Criminal Justice Reform Project with a focus on pretrial and a mission to reform using data driven, evidence based practices.

four: As shared in the Justice Policy Institute Report, “The vaguely understood pretrial process of bail costs the taxpayers of the United States billions of dollars and infringes on the liberty and rights of millions of Americans each year.”

It’s summer time! 

We are less than six weeks in to the Game of Thrones waiting game and counting down the days until (or fondly remembering) our summer vacations.

To help get out of the summer office space slump, we pulled together a few easy tips on staying productive in your community corrections office.

We know it can be difficult to stay focused on your clients and their treatment (much less all of the paperwork that comes along with them) when you’d rather be at the pool.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of the time you have this summer with your clients.

1. Get active! Take your sessions outside your office. Why keep everyone cooped up inside when you can take your sessions and programs outside? Take a walk around the office or use the stairs instead of the elevator. Here are some other ideas for moving around the office from the American Heart Association. 

2. Help your clients plan something they can look forward to.