Danielle S. Rudes

Misalignment in Supervision Implementing Risk/Needs Assessment Instruments in Probation

Risk and needs assessment (RNA) tools are well regarded as a critical component of a community corrections organization implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs), given the potential impact of using such tools on offender-level and system outcomes. The current study examines how probation officers (POs) use a validated RNA tool in two adult probation settings. Using interview and observational data, this study explores how POs use an assessment tool during all facets of their work from preplanning, routine administrative tasks, and face-to-face case management interactions with probation clients. Findings suggest POs overwhelmingly administer the RNA tool, but rarely link the RNA scores to key case management or supervision decisions. These findings highlight some of the challenges and complexities associated with the application of RNA tools in everyday practice. Study implications emphasize the need to modify current probation practices to create a synergy between the RNA and related supervision practices. Findings from this study contribute to a better appreciation for how the new penology integrates risk management with client-centered case models to improve outcomes.

Getting technical: parole officers' continued use of technical violations under California's parole reform agenda

How do parole officers manage technical violations in an organizational environment where technical violations are not supported by management? Using ethnographic data collected during three years (1300 hours) of fieldwork with California parole officers (POs) from 2003 to 2006, this paper considers how POs manage technical violators after the initiation of a rehabilitation-focused reform that encouraged POs to avoid violating parolees for technical/administrative violations except in the most egregious or troublesome cases. Data analysis suggests that POs often viewed this reform negatively and responded with various resistance strategies to continue violating parolees. Resistance tactics included: (1) partnering with police; (2) piling charges, and (3) using paperwork enhancement strategies. Officers felt these strategies better met community safety goals by assuring lengthy revocation sentences or increasing the likelihood of new crime prosecution. These findings have implications for the effectiveness of reform implementation and the success of prisoner reentry initiatives.

Implementing a Reentry Framework at a Correctional Facility: Challenges to the Culture

Implementation research is emerging in the field of corrections, but few studies have examined the complexities associated with implementing change among frontline workers embedded in specific organizational cultures. Using a mixed methods approach, the authors examine the challenges faced by correctional workers in a work release correctional facility during their transformation into a reentry center. Findings reveal that staff report a low readiness for change while observational and interview data confirm that staff attitudes and accompanying behaviors undermine efforts to provide a humane environment for reentry. This study illustrates the value of using quantitative and qualitative methods to understand and measure key organizational issues that affect the ability to alter the milieu for delivering services. The authors examine how inertia regarding reforms is not due to the nature of the reform but rather to the culture of the organization and how important it is to address organizational culture. They also highlight the importance of integrating interactional and routine practices among frontline workers as part of a strategy to reform correctional facilities.

Adding positive reinforcement in justice settings: Acceptability and feasibility

Although contingency management (CM) approaches are among the most promising methods for initiating drug abstinence (S. T. Higgins, S. M. Alessi, & R. L. Dantona, 2002; S. T. Higgins, S. H. Heil, & J. P. Lussier, 2004), adoption and implementation of CM protocols into treatment programs are both challenging and infrequent. In criminal justice agencies, where roughly 70% of clients report substance abuse issues (F. S. Taxman, K. L. Cropsey, D. W. Young, & H. Wexler, 2007), CM interventions are virtually nonexistent. The Justice Steps (JSTEPS) study uses a longitudinal, mixed-method design to examine the implementation of a CM-based protocol in five justice settings. This article presents qualitative data collected during Phase 1 of the JSTEPS project regarding the acceptability and feasibility of CM in these justice settings. The study finds a level of acceptability (find CM tolerable) and feasibility (find CM suitable) within justice agencies, but with some challenges. These challenges are reflected in the following: (a) incorporating too many desired target behaviors into CM models; (b) facing intraorganizational challenges when designing CM systems; and (c) emphasizing sanctions over rewards despite the evidence-base for positive reinforcers. These findings have implications for advancing the dissemination, adoption, and implementation of evidence-based treatments (and CM in particular) in criminal justice settings.

Front-Stage Stars and Backstage Producers: The Role of Judges in Problem-Solving Courts

Abstract In problem-solving courts judges are no longer neutral arbitrators in adversarial justice processes. Instead, judges directly engage with court participants. The movement toward problem-solving court models emerges from a collaborative therapeutic jurisprudence framework. While most scholars argue judges are the central courtroom actors within problem-solving courts, we find judges are the stars front-stage, but play a more supporting role backstage. We use Goffmans (1959) front-stage–backstage framework to analyze 350 hours of ethnographic fieldwork within five problem-solving courts. Problem-solving courts are collaborative organizations with shifting leadership, based on forum. Understanding how the roles of courtroom workgroup actors adapt under the new court model is foundational for effective implementation of these justice processes.

Students as Scholars: Integrating Independent Research into Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate programs across the country are working to develop students as scholars, integrating independent scholarly experiences into traditional undergraduate classroom environments (see, e.g. George Mason Universitys Students as Scholars Quality Enhancement Plan; Boston University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program; University of Houston’s Learning through Discovery; University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program; etc.). Scholars and universities have touted the benefits of engaging students in research experiences for students as well as faculty. However, there is little empirical work exploring how undergraduate students adapt to their new role as scholars. In this paper, we explore the process of students integrating research into their undergraduate classroom experience. Based on participant observation and pre and postsemester survey data, we discuss the process of students learning as scholars in a capstone Criminology, Law & Society course. We focus on how students gathered and analyzed data and integrated their research experience into their overall learning for the course. We find the process of research reinforces the learning objectives of the course.

The Transportability of Contingency Management in Problem-solving Courts

Problem-solving (PS) courts continue to proliferate throughout the country, providing an ideal setting for understanding the factors affecting the use of rewards, a key part of one evidence-based practice (EBP), contingency management (CM). This study uses the concept of transportability to explore how justice practitioners implement CM. Based on roughly 400 h of ethnographic fieldwork, conducted over 34 months in six PS courts, we examine the implementation and adaptation of CM. While decisions to adopt and implement practices are concentrated at the managerial level of organizations, the implementation processes used by frontline workers provide key insight into how EBP may become an everyday workplace practice. This study finds frontline workers adapting CM principles to their environments. While it might appear as though CM implementation strays from the original evidence-based construct, local adaptations provide a foundation for understanding the factors that affect the transportability of CM into routine practice.

Build to sustain: collaborative partnerships between university researchers and criminal justice practitioners

Sustainable, collaborative partnerships provide a dynamic and fluid environment for studying and implementing policy and practice in justice agencies. However, these relationships take work to develop, grow, maintain, and sustain. Bridging the gap between academics and criminal justice practitioners requires solid partnerships built on access, agreement, goal setting, feedback, and relationship maintenance. When these components merge, both groups benefit from a resilient partnership with the potential for dramatically improving outcomes. A researcher–practitioner partnership is a challenging and complex process requiring careful attention to detail and an endless supply of energy and determination. This paper highlights some of the many successful researcher–practitioner partnerships our research team at the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!) has with criminal justice agencies. We detail four specific partnerships with federal, state, and county criminal justice organizations spanning from probation and parole to problem-solving courts.

Managing up and down: community corrections middle managers’ role conflict and ambiguity during organizational change

Abstract Community corrections agencies in the United States must respond to and refine organizational practices depending on both internal (i.e. staff, resources, etc.) and external factors (i.e. political change, legislative action or union influence). Most prior studies emphasize the experiences of either upper management or line staff, but few studies focus on middle managers, who play a ‘strategic role’ in organizational reform. The current study explores the way(s) middle managers address policy implementation that often require reconcilement of conflict and ambiguity that often occur in translating policy to practice. The study uses ethnographic observations of and focus groups with 75 middle managers in a community corrections agency undergoing specialized training. Findings suggest middle managers resolve dissonance, and manage up, laterally and down, by employing three cognitive scripts: resignation, refocusing, and reinforcement. Each script presents distinct implications for organizational change processes and daily operations. Organizational reform creates deficits in middle managers’ role definition and more global impacts on their perception of organizational legitimacy within the agency’s goal framework. This work yields suggestions for future research and implications for mid-level managerial policy in corrections agencies.

The myriad of challenges with correctional change: From goals to culture:

Presently, many correctional organizations seek to change both policy and practice to improve offender outcomes. The occupational roles played by both staff and management represent an imperative part of the change equation. This article provides a historical and scientific overview of the scholarship on occupational roles within correctional agencies discussing how theoretical shifts in ideology impact correctional organizations and how correctional workers think, behave and make decisions regarding the individuals they supervise. We focus on the current shift emphasizing the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs), which presents new challenges for correctional organizations. We present two case examples of EBP implementation; one aiming to shift the correctional culture and communication within a correctional facility and the second focusing on the implementation of contingency management in community corrections settings. This research highlights the challenges associated with change within correctional environments, but also provides promising findings regarding successful implementation of EBPs within correctional organizations.