In community corrections, effective case management isn't just about completing assessments and documenting progress. It's about using that information to help individuals make meaningful, lasting changes.

Community corrections professionals understand that every client comes with unique risks, needs, strengths, and challenges. The key to successful rehabilitation is identifying those needs, developing targeted case plans, and providing the support necessary to achieve measurable progress.

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Topics: Community Corrections, Evidence Based Practices, Assessment, Risk Principle, Risk, Need, Responsivity

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Topics: Assessment, Community Corrections Professional, Addiction, Relapse Prevention, client development, Developing a practice model, coaching community corrections clients, reentry, client needs and values, risk, EBP, Justice-Involved Clients, jic

Risk Assessment is Not the Same as Case Formulation

We would like to start with a story. Picture a courthouse in a struggling industrial town in Connecticut. The adult probation department is situated in the basement of this courthouse. We are beginning training with a new cohort of probation officers, teaching them how to incorporate forensic CBT techniques into their work. To start, one of the officers describes a current case and reviews the available assessment information. A quick review of the risk assessment reveals this is a high-risk case; a major area of concern is antisocial companions. We ask the officer to explain how friends and companions specifically influence criminal behavior for this justice-involved client (JIC). We get crickets! We ask, what role did friends play in the most recent offense? Again, an awkward silence permeates the room. While the officer certainly knows that antisocial companions is a risk factor for reoffending, she has not explored the nature of the JIC’s relationships and discussed with the JIC the specific role of companions in his offense history and daily routines. Unfortunately, this is a common training scenario when we begin.

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Topics: Assessment, Developing a practice model, coaching community corrections clients, client needs and values, risk, Justice-Involved Clients, jic

In earlier blogs, we discussed some of the advantages of case planning from a risk-reduction perspective. One of the key challenges in operating from a risk perspective is answering a critical question, Where do mental health symptoms fit when working with justice-involved adolescents and adults?

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Topics: Community Corrections, Evidence Based Practices, Assessment, Risk Principle, Practice Models, responsivity, reentry, high risk client

Brad Bogue has a well-deserved reputation as a dynamic thinker and groundbreaking researcher in community corrections.  So when Brad turned his thoughts to the question of what makes a high-quality risk assessment interview, we were all ears and we bet you will be too.  Risk Assessments are a big part of setting the right path for our clients and working towards community safety. We at CorrectTech support this through our Assessment module.  Because your assessments are scored and part of every client’s electronic record, we create more time for practitioners to conduct the interview, interpret the results and create a risk reducing case plan using evidence-based practices.  We love that we support community corrections practitioners in having fewer scoring errors and less time focused on calculations – helping you focus on what matters most.

I have been training on a wide variety (e.g., CMC; YLS-CMI; PACT; COMPAS; LSI-R; PCL; SDRRC; ROPE; LS-CMI, ASUS, ASUDS) of offender assessment tools for over 32 years. Over time, I have begun to wonder precisely what competencies make an officer particularly good at sizing someone up with an interview-style assessment.

Before puzzling over that question, allow me to share two thoughts I subscribe to (with bias) on the assessment process. Number one, ‘it’s not the screw, but rather the hand that turns the screw,’ that makes the difference when it comes to assessment quality. There is a tremendous amount of variance between officers regarding quality of assessments, and rarely can it be attributed to variance in assessment tools. 3rd and so-called 4th generation offender assessment tools – nearly all additive-linear and comparable in itemization and scaling – may vary in price and automation slickness, but don’t differ that much regarding predictive validity.

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Topics: Community Corrections, Evidence Based Practices, Assessment, Community Corrections Professional