“I don’t get a candy bar every time I do my job, why should a client get something for doing what they are already supposed to do?”  Have you ever thought or heard something like this when discussing positive reinforcement with clients in community corrections?  When research shows positive reinforcement is more effective in long term behavior change, why is it that we tend to default to punish only?  

In my experience managing clients, managing staff, being a mother, wife, mentor and coach, I can attest that it can be easier to sigh, moan and complain about the performance of others.  Every time I find myself pulling out my hair, I realize I haven’t been using one of my best tools, positive reinforcement.  And guess what, when I start using it (or increase my use of it), I see improvement and I feel happier. It is all too easy to only notice what is going wrong and completely pay no attention to what is going right.

Let me offer some tips for success when implementing a positive reinforcement program in your agency.

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?

CorrectTech Named a Top 10 Corrections Solutions Provider for 2019

CorrectTech is honored to be chosen by GovCIO Outlook as a Top 10 Corrections Solutions Provider. Nominated by a customer, CorrectTech’s recognition as a solution to agencies looking to modernize operations and case management demonstrates that paperless and digital offices are here to stay.

Eric Tumperi, Chief Problem Solver and CEO loves redefining the status quo in the community corrections industry. Eric and founder Dr. Evan Crist have the same motivation: Passion for providing agencies and organizations with high quality, affordable, and effective automation solutions which allow staff to focus on what matters most –people!

CorrectTech’s newest endeavor combines artificial intelligence, machine learning models, and predictive analytics solutions to develop promising new practices to deliver timely insights and interventions that CEO Tumperi believes will contribute to reducing recidivism.

What a powerful statement made by Dr. Ed Latessa while speaking about what works and doesn’t work in reducing recidivism at the OCCA conference in May of 2018. Of course, you need referees in a game and metaphorically when running a community corrections program. We must play by and enforce the rules, but coaches win games and make their players successful. Community corrections does need staff that “blow the whistle” when clients go out of bounds, give appropriate consequences and redirection, but that alone only keeps people in bounds during the game, it doesn’t teach them how to improve their skills and improve long term. In my experience, Dr. Latessa is dead on.  Staff naturally gravitate towards being the rule enforcer rather than the encourager. Getting staff to take on coach as their primary role is something that can’t just be trained, it must be immersed in the daily culture of the program. 

When you hear the words Community Corrections what is the first thing you think of?

As a Community Corrections veteran of a residential program in Colorado, when someone asks me what community corrections is…my first response is, you may have heard it called a “halfway house”. And very egocentrically, I assumed that’s what it meant for everyone who said, “community corrections”. While I worked alongside probation and parole previously, when I started to work for CorrectTech I learned much more about what community corrections first means to others in the field and some minor differences and similarities in all the different shapes, sizes, and flavors of community corrections. I found it very interesting…maybe you will too.