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The Supreme Court has established what the founders of the juvenile court system intuited at the dawn of the 20th century--from a constitutional perspective, children are not little adults. Relying [...]

According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, jails admit approximately 12 million people each year, with an average length of stay of 23 days. Typically operated by county departments, jails [...]

When we think of prison re-entry programs, a lot of the focus is placed on the behaviors of the individual. These halfway homes and programs focus on making sure the [...]

I would not be alive today if it were not for Celebrate Recovery.' That is a statement made by more than one individual who has attended Celebrate Recovery (CR) meetings [...]

Reducing rates and incidents of recidivism directly benefits society in numerous ways, including increasing the safety in our communities, decreasing victimization rates, reducing criminal justice costs, and fostering family preservation. [...]

The Kimberley Region comprises more than 262,000 square miles in the north of Western Australia, located more than 1,245 miles from Western Australia's capital, Perth. Until late 2012, the area [...]

According to Joseph S. Wholey in one of the first primers on the subject, performance-based management is the purposeful use of resources and information to achieve and demonstrate measurable progress [...]

When working with offenders, how can criminal justice and corrections professionals consistently and effectively evaluate the risk to reoffend? How can professionals direct their efforts toward managing and reducing such [...]

The 21st century has been overwhelmed by pressure for alternative methods of responding to crime and punishment. Diminishing resources at all levels of government necessitate that criminal justice agencies examine [...]

Using a retrospective, quasiexperimental design, this study evaluates Minnesota's Challenge Incarceration Program (CIP), examining whether it has lowered recidivism and saved money. In addition to utilizing a lengthy follow-up period and multiple measures of recidivism and participation, a multistage sampling design was employed to create a control group that was not significantly different from the CIP group with respect to control variables. The results reveal that although CIP significantly reduced the time to reoffense, it did not have a significant effect when recidivism was measured as any return to prison. CIP reduced costs through a recidivism reduction, however, because when CIP offenders returned to prison, they stayed 40 fewer days than control group offenders because they were less likely to return for a new crime. Overall, the analyses show that CIP has saved Minnesota at least $6.2 million by providing early release to program graduates and reducing the time they later spend in prison. Keywords: boot camps; recidivism; cost-benefit analysis; correctional program evaluation

Faith-based programming is one of many potential tools for preparing inmates for successful reentry into society. The current study used official records of inmate misconduct and attitudinal survey data to investigate whether participation in a faith-based program reduced the likelihood of prison misconduct. The results indicated that program participation did lower the probability of engaging in serious forms of misconduct. No effect was discovered, though, for less serious forms of misconduct or for both types of misconduct considered simultaneously.

Mandating offenders to attend correctional treatment is a controversial function of the justice system, in part because of the uncertainty about the effectiveness of such practice. A meta-analysis was conducted to compare the effectiveness of mandated, coerced, and voluntary correctional treatment in reducing recidivism. A search of correctional treatment studies resulted in 129 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. In general, mandated treatment was found to be ineffective in several analyses, particularly when the treatment was located in custodial settings, whereas voluntary treatment produced significant treatment effect sizes regardless of setting. Few significant differences in effect sizes were found between levels of coercion. The implications of mandating correctional treatment for offenders are discussed. Keywords: meta-analysis; coercion; mandated treatment; voluntary treatment; correctional treatment

Over the past two decades, the role of risk-needs assessment in the criminal justice system has increased substantially. This study provides validation data on the Level of Service Inventory--Revised (LSI-R) and the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) using a large male cohort (N = 975) with a substantial proportion of ethnic minority offenders. In comparing the predictive validity of these tools, the authors employed a retrospective, archival, knowngroups design to study outcomes of offenders released into the community from New Jersey prisons between 1999 and 2002, with a postrelease outcome period of 12 months. The results indicate that both the LSI-R composite score and the COMPAS recidivism score have inconsistent validity when tested on different ethnic/racial populations. Furthermore, the results suggest that different ethnic/racial groups have varying risk and needs factors that predict recidivism. Keywords: risk; recidivism; risk-needs tools; LSI-R; COMPAS

The use of the circles of support and Accountability (COSA) model with high-risk sex offenders began in a small Mennonite community in Canada in the early 1990s. Grounded in the [...]

Although prior research suggests that juvenile correctional programs can be effective at reducing recidivism, research has also found that some programs are more effective than others. This suggests that identifying the characteristics of effective correctional programs is an important issue surrounding interventions with juveniles. The current research not only examines the effectiveness of Ohio's community correctional facilities in reducing recidivism, but it also examines whether measures of treatment integrity are related to recidivism. The findings revealed that programs that scored higher on treatment integrity were more effective at reducing recidivism. Specifically, community corrections facilities that served higher risk youth, targeted dynamic risk factors with cognitive behavioral modalities, and employed trained and qualified staff were found to have stronger effects on recidivism than those that did not.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has been involved in the ongoing evaluation of two federal initiatives designed to reduce recidivism: the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) and [...]

Editor's Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily the American Correctional Assocation. When I started my career in community corrections in 1983 [...]

An Indiana substance abuse treatment program has been linked to a reduction in recidivism in the state, according to The Indiana Lawyer. The program, Life After Meth, began in May [...]