Supervision of High-Risk Offenders \u2013 \u201cDC Public Safety\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome to DC Public Safety \u2013 radio and television shows on crime, criminal offenders and the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

See\u00a0http:\/\/media.csosa.gov<\/a> for our radio shows, blog and transcripts.<\/p>\n

Television Program available at http:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/video\/2012\/02\/supervision-of-high-risk-offenders-dc-public-safety-television\/<\/a><\/p>\n

We welcome your comments or suggestions at\u00a0leonard.sipes@csosa.gov<\/a> or at Twitter at\u00a0http:\/\/twitter.com\/lensipes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[Video Begins]<\/p>\n

Len Sipes: Hi and welcome to DC Public Safety. I\u2019m your host, Leonard Sipes. Today\u2019s show is supervising the high-risk offender, and you know, there is a consensus amongst the criminological community at agencies like the U.S. Department of Justice, that agencies like mine, that parole and probation agencies should be spending the bulk of the resources, the bulk of their time on the high-risk offender. To talk about this concept, we\u2019re really pleased to have two national experts with us on the first half; and then we\u2019re going to go to the second half and talk with the people from my agency addressing the implementation of that research. So on the first half; we have Jesse Jannetta, research associate from the Urban Institute, and Bill Burrell, independent community corrections consultant. And again, we\u2019re going to discuss the consensus in terms of the high-risk offender. Bill and Jesse, thanks again for being on the show. Bill Burrell, give me a sense as to what we\u2019re talking about with this national consensus. First of all, is there a consensus; second, what is the high-risk offender?<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s clearly a consensus. It\u2019s based on a robust body of research from United States, from Canada, from other countries around the issue of \u201cWho\u2019s on supervision and how do we handle them?\u201d And what the research tells us is that there is a group of people that are high-risk of re-offending when they\u2019re in the community. Not every offender is the same. They have different backgrounds, different experiences, committed different offenses, their commitment to their criminal career varies; and the people we were concerned about, are the people that pose the greatest risk, the high-risk offender.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell: The probabilities are very high that they\u2019re going to continue to offend in the community, and these are the folks that we want to keep a close eye on, and provide close supervision to see if we can reduce the risk of them re-offending again.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Jesse, you\u2019re from one of the premier research organizations in the country, the Urban Institute.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been taking a look at the high-risk offender for quite some time. The bottom line in this is the protection of public safety, is it not?<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 It is, and one of the reasons, again, that there has been a greater focus on the high-risk offender – and this is a good instance where research and what it\u2019s telling us is really tracking with common sense in many ways – in a situation where you have many problems, what you want to focus on is the biggest problem where you make the biggest impact, and that\u2019s going to be the high-risk offender, since they\u2019re the most likely to have more offenses and create more victims in the community. And what, in fact, we\u2019ve seen when you look at a lot of the programming interventions for parolees and probationers in the community is that, in fact, that programming is more effective for high-risk offenders; you get greater reduction in their risk to the community. And, in fact, in many cases, if you look at low risk offenders and programming, you may, if you put them into intensive programming, actually make their outcomes worse. And so this has really driven supervision agencies all over the country to think about, \u201cAlright, how can we make sure that we\u2019re putting most of our resources, whether its supervision or treatment or both of them in concert on our high-risk offenders? How can we know who those are, and then how can we move away a little bit from intervening too much with the lower risk offenders to avoid actually making their outcomes worse and having a negative impact on what\u2019s going on in the community in terms of public safety?\u201d<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Bill, back to you. This is a consensus, correct? I mean, within the criminological community, within organizations, within the Department of Justice, within the American Probation and Parole Association, there does seem to be a consensus that we move in this direction. I want to be very clear about that.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Absolutely; and this goes back a good 20 years to research that came out primarily in the early 1990s, looking at the question of risk.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell: And over those years, through conferences and workshops and experience with agencies, that\u2019s begun to seep into the fabric of probation, parole agencies around the country; and few people contest it any more. It really is something that has become an accepted fact that there are high-risk offenders, and if we\u2019re serious about public safety, these are the folks we need to go after.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right, and Jesse, the research is supportive. I just read a piece from Abt Associates where they were basically doing what it is that we\u2019re doing now, or propose to do; and they showed substantial reductions in recidivism. And when I say recidivism, we\u2019re talking about real crime. We\u2019re talking about people becoming injured. We\u2019re talking about increasing public safety. So two of the three sites where they implemented this strategy, the best practices within 50 to one case loads, they were able to reduce recidivism and new crimes considerably. The one case where it did not happen, they didn\u2019t implement it fully –<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta: Right.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 – so there\u2019s good strong data in Abt, and as Bill said in lots of other research, that basically said this is the way to go. So it\u2019s not just a consensus, it\u2019s based upon hard research.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 Right and this is a research base that has, as Bill suggested, been developing over 20 years. And I think one of the things that has led to the consistency in those kind of research results is that we\u2019ve gotten a lot better at working with the high-risk offender. The first piece we\u2019ve gotten a lot better at is identifying who those people are out of all the parolees and probationers –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – than an agency supervises. So the assessment tools to build risk groups and say, \u201cAlright, these are the people, if you look at this group, they\u2019re the group that\u2019s much more likely to re-offend.\u201d The tools to do that have gotten a lot more sophisticated and performed better. And on the programming front, you know, over the years, we\u2019ve gotten a lot better at both knowing what kind of curriculum, what kind of approaches work for good programming, but also a lot of information about what the staff needs to be like, when you put people in the programming, and so we\u2019re in a much stronger position than we were –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – 20 years ago, to say, \u201cThese are the people we need to focus on. We really can identify them in our population, and these are the tools that are going to make them less likely to re-offend.\u201d\u00a0 Twenty years ago, we had ideas about those things, but we didn\u2019t have a strong ground to stand on in terms of having seen the results. But today, we are in that position where you can look at a lot of different jurisdictions and say, \u201cWe\u2019ve proven this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Len Sipes: The risk and needs assessment that you just brought up, Jesse and Bill, I mean, we\u2019ve come light years in terms of our ability to figure it out – but it\u2019s not foolproof, I want to make it very clear right now – we can be 80 percent, and 80 percent is incredibly good in terms of predicting who\u2019s going to fail and who\u2019s not; but it\u2019s not infallible – but we\u2019ve come light years in terms of the level of sophistication, with validated instruments to figure out who\u2019s antisocial, and who\u2019s going to make it and who\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Am important thing to remember about these assessments, and you mentioned, is that they\u2019re not perfect. These are probability statements about groups of people who look alike.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 They\u2019re not individual predictions to individual offenders.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Our technology doesn’t allow us to do that.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 So we plug into the assessment this body of information about people who\u2019ve been under supervision before, and how they behaved and how they did under supervision, and we use that to develop a model that helps us identify those kinds of people in the existing population.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 The insurance companies have used this kind of technology for years.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Yes, they have.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Actuarial models.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 So we\u2019re very good at being able to put people into the right groups, but then we have to plug in the expertise of the probation parole officers to go beyond what the actuarial instrument will tell you; to begin the plug in unique things to that individual offender. So what the research tells us is, the instruments do a very good job – a little better job than any of us can do individually – but when you plug in the experience of a probation parole officer on top of that assessment, you get the greatest level of accuracy in terms of who\u2019s likely to re-offend.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right. It\u2019s based on a machine read. Somebody\u2019s got to make – somebody\u2019s got to take a look at this and figure out for themselves if it\u2019s correct or incorrect, whether or not it should be overwritten to a lower level, a higher level of supervision. Jesse, the research also says that treatment programs are an integral part of this, so it\u2019s just not a matter of supervision, the research from the past basically says if you only do supervision, the only thing you\u2019re going to do is revoke very high numbers of people and put them back within the correctional system. People who have mental health issues need mental health treatment. People who have substance abuse issues need substance abuse treatment. People who don\u2019t have an occupational background need to be provided with information as to getting jobs, and how to present themselves. Correct or incorrect?<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 Yeah, all of those things are correct. And the one thing that I would add to that, where there\u2019s been an emerging consensus as well as the importance of it, is what\u2019s called cognitive behavioral treatment, and this is based on the understanding that a lot of criminal behavior is driven by the way the people make decisions, the values and beliefs and justifications that they have inside themselves that may –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – support or justify after the fact, criminal behavior. And then the other layer is a lot of their associates. So if you have somebody who is hanging out with, and a lot of their friends are criminally involved, the odds are pretty high that they will be as well. And so a lot of that programming is looking at building skills to make better decision making, to do better problem solving –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we mean by –<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – to be less aggressive.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0\u00a0 – cognitive – better decision-making.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 Right. It\u2019s about, you know, the way people think and make decisions –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – determines a lot of their behavior. And so if you want them to make a different kind of decision than they\u2019ve made in the past, you need to work on that really directly, and have them build skills. And that this often has effects not only in a criminal behavior, but it makes them more successful in employment.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 And that is part of the research base.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 Oh, absolutely.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 The research does back that up.\u00a0 Bill, –<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 I want to –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Go ahead, please.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 I want to elaborate a little bit on that –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Please.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 – because we started out talking about the high-risk offender, and that\u2019s determining who we\u2019re going to work with.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 And once we\u2019ve determined that, then we need to look at the individual factors as – and Jesse began to suggest – what we call on the field, criminogenic risk factors.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Things that drive people to commit crime. That\u2019s the second major thing that has come out of this 20 plus year body of research, is now we know what we want to work with offenders on. How do we want to change them? What are the things in their lives –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 – that drive them to commit crime.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 So that\u2019s that – it\u2019s kind of a – we know who to work with, what to work on, and the next part is how to go about that, and that\u2019s the cognitive behavioral intervention.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Great.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Because much of what we do, the way we think, determines how we act.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 So if you change thinking patterns from criminal to pro-social, you get pro-social behavior and less criminal activity.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay, a very important point now. If we\u2019re going to take all these resources and we\u2019re going to place the bulk of our supervision, the bulk of our treatment sources on the high-risk offender, what that means is that with lower risk offenders, we\u2019re going to do quote\/unquote \u201csomething else\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Now what comes to mind is New York City putting the great majority of the people that they have under probation supervision on kiosks. They\u2019re automatic machines. They look like the bank machine that you go to –<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta\/Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Yeah, right.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 – to withdraw, a ATM machine. Thank you. And that jurisdictions around the country are now using them to lower case loads. They\u2019re using kiosk, but the kiosk example, the thing that surprised me is that up in New York City, they showed less recidivism using kiosks when compared to a control group. So there are ways of safely supervising and interacting with low risk offenders beyond person to person contact, correct?<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 Correct; and I think the kiosk is a real interesting experiment, you know, in this country there is a love affair with technology. So any time you throw technology at a problem, we think it will fix it, but I think Jesse mentioned that intervening with low risk offenders more than you need to, can actually cause problems. So I think what you might be seeing in New York City is that we have reduced the amount of intrusion into those low risk offenders\u2019 lives, and they respond in a positive way to that.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 People resist being told what to do, being forced into programs or services that they don\u2019t really think they need, and we found a way to accomplish the monitoring objectives of supervision without overtly or excessively intruding in their lives.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 But we\u2019re not, Jesse, risking public safety when we do this; every parole and probation agency in this country, whether they cop to it or not, does have a lower level of supervision –<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes: – for lower risk offenders. I mean, so that\u2019s current, that\u2019s happening now anyway.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 Right. I think the greatest challenge for parole and probation agencies in delivering on the promise of working with the high-risk offender, and what we know from research, is the research challenges. You have parole and probation officers all around the country that have huge caseloads –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – 80, 90, 100 people –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – and it\u2019s very difficult, if not impossible, to meaningfully work on risk reduction things with all of those people. And working with high-risk offenders, I mean, as we\u2019ve said, we\u2019ve got this research about what\u2019s effective, but this is not a situation where a little bit goes a long way. The kind of programming and interventions they need are intensive. You need to spend time with them not just in the programming, but the parole and probation officers enhancing their motivation, –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – keeping them moving on the right path, intervening when they might be backsliding a little bit, engaging their families, –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0\u00a0 – their employers, the positive influences in their life –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – keeping them on track with their plan. You need time in the day to do that, and so there is some need to move around resources. One of the most interesting findings in that kiosk study in New York is that it\u2019s not only the low risk offenders did better –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 – but the high-risk offenders also did better.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 New York City probation was very clear, \u201cWe\u2019re going with kiosk for the low risk offenders so we can spend more time with the high-risk offenders, and they did better too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 We have a minute left. The key in all of this seems to be the proper balance. The key in all of this seems to be a balance of resources and figuring out where to place your resources, obviously the high-risk offender. But that seems to be the tune-up, if you will, for parole and probation agencies to make them far more effective, and at the same time protect public safety. We are talking about fewer crimes committed. Am I right or wrong?<\/p>\n

Jesse Jannetta:\u00a0 That\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 And we have to be smart about this. We have to realize that all offenders are alike. They have different characteristics, different levels of risk, and we need to apply our resources in a way that responds to that information.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Bill Burrell:\u00a0 And then once we\u2019ve done that, then we need to use the techniques that have been proven with high-risk offenders to get the results that we want.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 And Bill, you\u2019ve got the final word. Ladies and gentlemen, we appreciate you watching the program today. Stay with us in the second half as we take a look in my agency, the Court Services and Offenders Supervision Agency, in taking this research consensus that Jesse and Bill talked about, and implementing it within my agency. We\u2019ll be right back.<\/p>\n

[Program Break]<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Hi, welcome back to DC Public Safety. I continue to be your host, Leonard Sipes.\u00a0 I represent the Court Services and Offenders Supervision Agency. We\u2019re a federal parole and probation agency responsible for offenders in Washington DC, and what you\u2019ve heard on the first half, that research consensus from two national experts as to the research on the high-risk offender, well now we\u2019re going to be implementing it; and we have been implementing it throughout the course of the year. To talk about it, we have Valerie Collins, a branch chief of the Domestic Violence Unit for the Court Services and Offenders Supervision Agency; and Gregory Harrison, again branch chief for general supervision, Court Services and Offenders Supervision. And to Valerie and Greg, welcome to the program!<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Greg, the first question\u2019s going to you. We\u2019ve heard the researchers of people representing two stellar organizations in terms of that research consensus within the criminological community, within the government, that we really should be focusing on the high-risk offender. And the integral part of supervising that high-risk offender is first of all, discovering who that person is with a risk assessment instrument, correct?<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 You\u2019re absolutely correct, and I think what CSOSA has done is actually fallen right in line with the research in terms of showing that we\u2019ve identified the high-risk offenders versus those who are low risk. We\u2019ve challenged our resources in their appropriate domains, and it\u2019s showing that our offenders are pretty much providing, or being provided with the services that they need.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right, and so when we\u2019re talking about the high-risk offender, as far as CSOSA is concerned – and I think this matches the national research – we\u2019re talking about sex, we\u2019re talking about violence, we\u2019re talking about weapons, and we\u2019re talking about the ages principally 18 to 25. Now, it doesn’t have to really focus on all the variables that I just mentioned – there could be others – but principally it\u2019s that part of our population, correct?<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison: You\u2019re absolutely correct.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay, Valerie; and we\u2019re also talking about individuals that even though the current charge say is theft or possession with intent to distribute, we\u2019re not taking just a look at the current charge; we\u2019re taking a look at the totality of that person\u2019s criminal history, the totality of that person\u2019s social history, correct?<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins: Yes, what we do is we look at the person\u2019s entire history. We look very strongly at what their criminal background has been. We also look at other risk factors that they may have had. As you indicated, a person may be on supervision for something like theft –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins: – but if they\u2019ve had, you know, armed robbery with a weapon, you know, in their past –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 – that is of course going to bump their supervision level up. And they would certainly get closer supervision.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes: Either one of you can answer this. We\u2019re talking about somewhere in the ballpark of about a third of our caseload when we\u2019re talking about high-risk offenders, correct?<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Yeah, about a third in the high-risk area, one third in the medium, and a third in the low risk categories as well.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 All right, now we said in the first half that the focus needs to be on the high-risk offender, that\u2019s where the resources need to be, the treatment resources, the supervision resources. And, you know, it\u2019s pretty clear that the research throughout the country is that this reduces recidivism, this protects public safety, focusing on that high-risk offender. But what that does mean is that for the lower risk offender, we\u2019ve got to do quote\/unquote \u201csomething else\u201d, lower levels of supervision. And now we\u2019re implementing the kiosk program where we are putting lower level offenders on kiosks, and so they\u2019re going to be reporting to a machine; and if there are issues in terms of that reporting, they have to then contact a community supervision officer elsewhere, known as parole and probation agents. There still could be drug testing involved, so it\u2019s just not the machine, but it\u2019s going to be principally kiosk reporting for lower level offenders, correct?<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 Yes, and actually there would be an officer who is assigned to those offenders who are on kiosk supervision.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes: Okay.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 They monitor that kiosk supervision, they are able to look at reports to see if the person\u2019s actually reporting in, –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 – ensuring that they\u2019re still employed.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 They are also randomly drug tested.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 And so if, you know, the person is positive, then they would come back into the office and we would do intervention with that individual.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 So we do have a lot of things put in place so that we can actually make sure that we are keeping in contact with those individuals, that they are following the program that has been set up for them –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 – and again, if they are not in compliance, then swiftly we are able to direct ourselves to those individuals, to have contact with them.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 But then again, that is to free up resources to focus on the high-risk offender, and that\u2019s the person who possibly poses a clear and present risk to public safety. That\u2019s where we should be going.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 And what that has done has allowed us to work much closely with those individuals who are high-risk –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 – so that the supervision officers have actually lower case loads for those offenders who we have –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 – identified to be the high-risk offenders.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right. So we\u2019re talking about what, Greg?\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about global positioning system tracking. We\u2019re talking about working with local law enforcement, and we\u2019re talking about in terms of a sex offender; a polygraph test. We\u2019re talking about two new day reporting centers.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about a whole wide array of strategies to stay in touch with that individual; and I\u2019m going to dare say based upon the research far more than most states stay in touch with their offenders.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Certainly. But one of the things that we\u2019ve done at CSOSA is we\u2019ve made sure that our staff were more than prepared to address and handle high-risk offenders.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 We\u2019ve done that by showing that all of our staff were trained in cognitive behavior intervention –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison: – as well as motivational interviewing.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 And when we – having done that, we\u2019ve ensured that the staff would be ready to understand the assessments, –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 – be able to actually articulate their understanding of the assessment to the offender population. Because oftentimes the offender\u2019s always saying, \u201cYou\u2019re putting me in this program, you\u2019re putting me in that program or referring me here and there, but you\u2019re not telling me exactly why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 So we\u2019ve trained our staff tremendously in those efforts to ensure that the offenders have a clear understanding of what their expectations are, and why we\u2019re using the resources that we\u2019re using to channel them into using best practice resources –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 – channel them into the areas of compliance.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Greg, I\u2019m glad you brought that up. And Valerie, the next question\u2019s going to go to you. In terms of treatment resources, I mean cognitive behavioral therapy where we sit down and teach individuals how to think differently throughout their lives, and people sometimes smirk at that, but the research base is pretty clear that this reduces re-offending, it lowers criminality, it protects public safety. Those sort of treatment resources, whether it be mental health, whether it be substance abuse, whether it be our own facilities where we place people for an assessment, or place people for intensive drug treatment, the bulk of those treatment resources are going to go to that individual.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 We actually have – we call our Reentry and Sanction Center, and that is designed to do a 28-day assessment on those offenders who are high-risk individuals.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 And what we do with them is that we bring them in–it\u2019s an in-patient setting for 28 days–really look at what their needs are, their treatment needs are, and from there, we develop a plan for them, a treatment plan. And they may go out to another treatment facility; we may look at getting them some type of transitional housing so that they can get some stability in the community. And then, particularly in the Domestic Violence Unit, we have a treatment component where we are doing exactly what we\u2019re talking about. We\u2019re actually looking at, you know, how people think, and actually making some changes in their cognitive behavior –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 – so they will no longer be involved with those types of offenses in terms of domestic violence; giving them some alternatives and some skills so that they can be successful in the community.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 And as we said during the first half of the program, that that treatment emphasis, it\u2019s got to be a combination of supervision and treatment. It\u2019s just not one or the other. If the person comes out of the prison system and he has mental health issues, those mental health issues need to be addressed. I\u2019m not quite sure anybody could disagree with that; if you address those mental health issues, you\u2019re gonna lower the rate of him being back in the criminal justice system. If he has this wild substance abuse history, that needs to be addressed. If he has no work history, that needs to be addressed. That\u2019s what we plan on doing for high-risk offenders.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Yes, you\u2019re absolutely right. And speaking about in terms of mental health, CSOSA has done a phenomenal job in segmenting our population in terms of needs.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 We have a unit that deals in services to the mental health population. We have a unit that deals and services the all woman population –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 – the DVIP population. So we\u2019re really segmented pretty well, and it helps us to channel again our resources in the proper area.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right. I mean, best practices. I mean, one of the things that I find unique about CSOSA is use of best practice, and we\u2019ve been basically implementing best practices since the beginning.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 I mean, CSOSA has been dedicated to a research-based approach, and we think that that obviously works. Alright, let me get into this. For that lower level offender who is going to get less supervision, they are also going to get less treatment. They\u2019re also going to get fewer interventions; again, designed to free up resources for that person who poses a clear and present risk to public safety. What that does mean is that they\u2019re not going to get drug treatment, say, from CSOSA, our drug treatment, but they will work with people in the community to try to get them drug treatment. But our priority needs to be treatment and supervision services on the high-risk offender, am I right?<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins: You\u2019re correct, but I think the other unique thing about CSOSA is that we\u2019ve developed such strong partnerships in the community with law enforcement, you know, with treatment providers, so that we do have a host of resources that we can refer these low risk offenders –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 – on to, so that they can actually get their services in the community. And when you talk about best practices, when they\u2019re off supervision, they\u2019re already entrenched and embedded in what\u2019s already available to them in their community.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 And we found that that has really helped.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes: Well, the partnership part of this is crucial because in terms of public safety, I mean, working with law enforcement, whether it\u2019s the Metropolitan Police Department or the Secret Service or the FBI, we work with them on a regular basis in terms of, you know, who\u2019s doing well, who\u2019s not doing well. I mean, individual officers work with our community supervision officers. So that partnership is there on the supervision side and the treatment side in terms of resources for individuals. My Heavens there is a faith-based program. I mean, thousands of people help getting them, you know, the resources of the faith community in terms of substance abuse or in terms of housing. So it\u2019s the community partnership that is an extraordinarily strong part of what it is we\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 Yes, you\u2019re right. And as we talked about earlier just with the whole transitional housing piece, you know, that\u2019s something where we have a partnership with our faith-based providers. And not only do they provide transitional housing, they also provide mentors.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Valerie Collins:\u00a0 So again, you really have that community support, and that\u2019s what we find that particularly in reentry, that these offenders need.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Now Greg, you\u2019ve been around a long time, because when people hear this concept of working with the offender, cognitive behavioral therapy, they\u2019re not aware of the research; it\u2019s sometimes a hard issue for them to grasp. But what we have to do is to get through to that individual offender, and not only in terms of supervision, not only in terms of treatment, but also in terms of incentives. We\u2019ve got to break through that barrier, that wall that he or she brings to us, and we\u2019ve got to work with that person as a human being.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 And where some people have a hard time hearing that, it\u2019s true. I mean, we can reduce recidivism, better protect public safety, by breaking through and dealing with that individual as a human being; and that includes incentives and that includes working with that individual as a person.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Yeah, and it\u2019s very interesting that you talk about incentives, because oftentimes we deal with when you\u2019re in the world of criminal justice, we always talk about punitive damages and things of that nature –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Mm-hm.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 – but incentives is something that CSOSA takes pride in, in terms of we do early terminations of some offenders.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 We make referrals oftentimes for them to come off supervision early. We actually, for those offenders who are on GPS where we\u2019ve implemented curfews on them, we have reduced the curfew timeframe for them.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 As long as they are in compliance. But what we have to do a better job at is showing that our offenders are absolutely in the know –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 – about all of the interventions that we\u2019re placing on them, and why we\u2019re placing these interventions on them.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 That individual can work their way off that high-risk status. I mean, we can, you know, day reporting and lots of contact and lots of programs and constant GPS; that\u2019s not forever. As long as he or she goes along with the program, we ease them off that level of supervision. We may even ease them off a level of treatment. So that person can get off this designation, correct?<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Yeah, certainly. And what we\u2019ve done a lot of times – Valerie has done it, myself and my other branch chief co-workers – we\u2019ve had what we call “call-ins”. We\u2019ve actually taken focus areas of desire and brought all of those offenders in – whether it\u2019s burglary or GPS offenders and things of that nature – we\u2019ve talked to them about what public safety actually means.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 And what it means for them to be compliant and maintain a level of compliance, so that we can reduce their supervision that was from high-risk to a lower risk offender.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right. And the bottom line in terms of the community watching this, regardless of where they are in the country, or Washington DC, all of this does protect public safety.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 Certainly.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 There\u2019s now a national strategy that we\u2019ve been implementing for a long time, but we\u2019re going full throttle in that implementation, and we do believe that this is something which is in the public\u2019s best interest.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 But one thing I want to say is this.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes: And quickly though.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 In terms of low risk offenders, there are no guarantees. If an offender\u2019s on kiosk, there are no guarantees –<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 – that they won\u2019t re-offend.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Gregory Harrison:\u00a0 But what we\u2019re doing is putting in process in place.<\/p>\n

Len Sipes:\u00a0 Thank you, thank you. Alright, you\u2019ve got the final word, Greg. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for watching the program as we examine the issue from a national and local perspective as to the high-risk offender. Look for us next time as we explore another very important topic within today\u2019s criminal justice system; and please have yourselves a very, very pleasant day.<\/p>\n

[Video Ends]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supervision of High-Risk Offenders \u2013 \u201cDC Public Safety\u201d Welcome to DC Public Safety \u2013 radio and television shows on crime, criminal offenders and the criminal justice system. See\u00a0http:\/\/media.csosa.gov for our radio shows, blog and transcripts. Television Program available at http:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/video\/2012\/02\/supervision-of-high-risk-offenders-dc-public-safety-television\/ We welcome your comments or suggestions at\u00a0leonard.sipes@csosa.gov or at Twitter at\u00a0http:\/\/twitter.com\/lensipes. [Video Begins] Len Sipes: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,9,38,13,120,15,52,18,24,21],"tags":[27,28,121,122,123,124,282],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminaljustice","category-drugtreatment","category-education","category-gps","category-highriskdrugoffenders","category-interagency-cooperation","category-interviewswithpolicymakers","category-parole-and-probation","category-reentry","category-videopodcast","category-whatworks","tag-crime","tag-criminals","tag-dangerous-offenders-2","tag-high-risk-offenders","tag-high-volume-offenders","tag-kiosks","tag-parole-and-probation","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pBoKk-aR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":767,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions\/767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}