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Enhancing Correctional Performance: The Need for a Unified Measures System

The Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) recognized the inadequacy of current performance measures, which often misrepresent the effectiveness of correctional facilities and lead to unfair comparisons among jurisdictions. Inadequate data results in disconnected perceptions of prison realities, influenced by public misconceptions and sensational media reports. The absence of standard performance metrics hinders administrators' ability to demonstrate needs and justify expenditures, often resulting in erroneous decision-making. ASCA advocates for a collaborative approach to develop a standardized Performance Measures System, enabling fair assessments and improved prison management.

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Enhancing Correctional Performance: The Need for a Unified Measures System

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  1. ASCAPerformance Based Measures System

  2. Why did the Association of State Correctional Administrators need or want a Performance Measures System?

  3. Corrections numbers have been used inappropriately to judge a DOC’s performance, and to compare one jurisdiction unfairly with sister jurisdictions.

  4. Who is scrutinizing correctional performance?

  5. The PUBLIC knows little about prisons, but most have strong opinions about crime, and respond to information about the prison issue of the day with votes that affect the quality of prison administration.

  6. The MEDIA have been known to publish sensational stories about prisons, sometimes using questionable figures to support erroneous conclusions which undermine administrators’ efforts. Absence of good data creates a disconnect between “reality and what is reported.”

  7. The absence of good data and research creates a vacuum. Something always moves to fill a vacuum. In our case, SPECIAL COMMISSIONS, like Vera and PREA, have relied on anecdotes to fill the void.

  8. GOVERNORS’ BUDGET OFFICES press for expenditure justifications, imposing cut after cut to provide more money for schools and other priority projects. Directors often have no standard performance numbers available to demonstrate critical needs.

  9. Legislative bodies research and use data to call administrators to task. For example, “Why does a prisoner’s food cost more in our state than in other states?”

  10. Courts issue orders against corrections that are based on data that might have been erroneous or taken out of context.

  11. Far too frequently, unfair comparisons are made among state corrections agencies. Agencies define terms differently, for example, “assaults.” The numbers may appear the same, but the meanings are different. Methods for arriving at measures vary among agencies, for example, recidivism rates.

  12. Without uniformity in defining measures and counting according to the same rules, comparisons of measures among jurisdictions are an “apples and oranges” proposition. Consequently, the meaning is lost. = 0

  13. More importantly, when critical decisions are made based on erroneous data, no one wins, and frequently the ability of administrators to maintain secure and safe prisons is compromised.

  14. During the ’90s, these issues were regularly discussed at ASCA meetings and trainings. Everyone agreed that ASCA jurisdictions should come together to develop uniform measures of correctional performance.

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