Evidence Based Practices

1. Evidence BasedPractices Lars Olsen, Director of Treatment and Intervention Programs Maine Department of Corrections September 4, 2008

2. Evidence Based Practices • Assess Actuarial Risk/Needs – LSI-R, Static 99 • Enhance Intrinsic Motivation – Motivational Interviewing • Target Interventions • Risk Principle – Prioritize supervision and treatment for high risk offenders • Need Principle – Target interventions to criminogenic needs such as substance abuse; attitudes, values and beliefs; education; companions; and family/marital relationships

3. Evidence Based Practices • Responsivity Principle – Be responsive to temperament, learning style, motivation, culture and gender when assigning programs • Dosage – Provide interventions at an appropriate level of intensity and timing • Treatment – Integrate treatment into full sentence/sanction through assertive case management

4. Evidence Based Practices • Skill Train with Directed Practice – Use Cognitive Behavioral treatment methods • Increase Positive Reinforcement – Four positives for every negative • Engage Ongoing Support in Natural Communities – Actively engage pro-social supports in their communities including families, friends and organizations

5. Evidence Based Practices • Measure Relevant Processes/Practices – Measure and document offender change and evaluate staff performance • Provide Measurement Feedback – Provide feedback to offenders regarding their progress and monitor delivery of services and fidelity to procedures

6. Gender Responsive Program • Women’s Center in Windham opened in 2002 • Women’s Reentry Center in Bangor opened in 2007

7. Gender Responsive Program Guiding Principles: • Acknowledge that gender makes a difference; • Create an environment based on safety, respect, and dignity; • Develop policies, practices, and programs that are relational and promote healthy connections to children, family, significant others and the community;

8. Gender Responsive Program • Address substance abuse, trauma, and mental health issues through comprehensive, integrated, and culturally relevant services and appropriate supervision; • Provide women with opportunities to improve their socioeconomic conditions; • Establish a system of community supervision and reentry with comprehensive, collaborative services.

9. Implementation Strategies • The correctional environment or setting is modified to enhance supervision and treatment; • Classification and assessment instruments are validated on samples of women offenders; • Policies, practices, and programs take into consideration the significance of women’s relationships with their children, families, and significant others;

10. Implementation Strategies • Policies, practices, and programs promote services and supervision that address substance abuse, trauma, and mental health and provide culturally relevant treatment to women; • The socioeconomic status of women offenders is addressed by services that focus on their economic and social needs; and • Partnerships are promoted among a range of organizations located within the community.

11. Implementation Strategies • MDOC is currently a national pilot site for the implementation of the Women Offender Case Management Model

12. Correctional Program Assessment Inventory • The Correctional Program Assessment Inventory is a research based objective instrument to assess program effectiveness. It is used to determine how closely a correctional treatment program meets known principles of effective correctional treatment and rates the integrity of correctional programs according to the following areas:

13. Correctional Program Assessment Inventory • Program Demographics • Organizational Culture • Program Implementation/Maintenance • Management/Staff Characteristics • Client Risk/Need Practices • Program Characteristics • Core Correctional Practice • Inter-agency Communications • Evaluation

14. Correctional Program Assessment Inventory The advantages to utilizing the CPAI are: • The criteria are based on empirically derived principles of effective programs. • The process provides a measure of program integrity and quality. • It provides insight into the inner workings of a program, something that an outcome study alone does not provide. • The results can be obtained relatively quickly.

15. Correctional Program Assessment Inventory • It identifies both the strengths and weaknesses of a program. • It provides the program with an idea of what it is doing that is consistent with the research on effective interventions, as well as those areas that need improvement. • It provides some recommendations for program improvement.

16. Correctional Program Assessment Inventory • It allows for benchmarking or comparisons with other programs that have been assessed using the same criteria, and • It allows a program to reassess its progress over time since program integrity and quality can change.

17. Correctional Program Assessment Inventory • The following adult programs have been assessed using the CPAI: • Correctional Recovery Academy/Transitional Recovery Academy at MCC and CMPRC (Very Satisfactory) • RULE (Sex Offender Treatment) Program at MCC (Very Satisfactory) • Women’s Center (Very Satisfactory)

18. Correctional Program Assessment Inventory • Violence No More (Batterers Intervention Program) • Men's work (Batterers Intervention Program) • Opportunity for Change (Batterers Intervention Program) • Only 7% of programs assessed worldwide score in the Very Satisfactory range.

19. Recidivism Research • Consistent with evidence based practices related to measuring relevant processes/practices and providing measurement feedback, the Department maintains an ongoing relationship with the Muskie School at the University of Southern Maine to track recidivism. The primary focus has been on juvenile and adult community corrections. A contract to develop more robust recidivism research to include the adult and juvenile facilities is underway. The results of the research are available on the Muskie and MDOC web sites.

20. Single Case Planning • MDOC is currently developing and implementing a Single Case Planning process that ensures continuity of care as offenders move from community corrections through various facilities and back to the community. All elements of evidence based practice are incorporated into this process and it provides direction, structure and documentation of correctional interventions. CORIS, the Department’s Offender Information Management System is a key component of single case planning. It has been developed and modified to ensure best practice in case management.

21. Reentry Services • Continuity of care and comprehensive transitional services are critical to good outcomes for offenders.  Starting in 2003 the MDOC has administered a Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) grant and is now administering a Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) grant to ensure appropriate reentry services for designated offenders in the system.  Lessons learned from these initiatives are helping inform practice for the transition of all offenders in the system.  The Department also maintains contracts with Volunteers of America Northern New England to provide reentry services for women at the Women’s Center and the Women’s Reentry Center.