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The topic for the twentieth television show produced by the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency is “Supervision of High Risk Offenders”.

There is extensive research that parole and probation agencies should focus their efforts on offenders who pose an obvious risk to public safety. CSOSA embarked on two reorganizations in 2011, one focusing on women offenders (TV show filmed on February 16, 2011) and the other on high risk offenders; the focus of this production.

Multiple national research centers, such as The Urban Institute, Pew, and the US Department of Justice, suggest that parole and probation agencies focus their supervision and treatment resources on high risk offenders, as identified through objective, validated risk and needs instruments, while placing less emphasis on lower risk offenders through alternative methods of supervision.

The program intends to provide an overview of CSOSA high risk offender supervision and treatment efforts based on national best practice standards. The program will:

• Discuss the findings of national best practices research.
• Discuss how CSOSA chooses high-risk offenders with a focus on violence, weapons, sex offenses, drug use and previous violations while under community supervision.
• Another focus will be on younger offenders in the 18-25 age bracket. CSOSA makes its judgments  on the totality of an offender’s violent criminal history, and not just on the offender’s current conviction. It is estimated that approximately one-third of CSOSA offenders will fall into the high risk category.
• Discuss CSOSA efforts and programs created to focus on the treatment of high risk offenders.
• Discuss CSOSA efforts and programs created to focus on the supervision of high risk offenders. These include identifying the right offenders to participate in existing efforts such as Accountability Tours, intelligence exchanges with law enforcement, GPS and curfews, services provided to offenders at our day reporting centers, and the reallocation of staff. Part of the reallocation of staff includes a new seven person warrant unit.
• Discuss alternative methods of supervising lower risk offenders to include kiosks.

The first segment will be an overview of the national research findings pertaining to the high risk offender.

The second segment will focus on CSOSA practices as they pertain to the implementation of the high risk offender reorganization.

Participants-first segment:

• Jesse Jannetta, Research Associate, The Urban Institute
• William Burrell, Independent Community Corrections Consultant.

Participants-second segment:

• Valerie Collins, Branch Chief, Domestic Violence, CSOSA
• Gregory Harrison, Branch Chief, General Supervision, CSOSA

DC Public Safety:

Subscribe to “DC Public Safety” through iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dc-public-safety-video/id211867321?ign-mpt=uo%3D4 for video and http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dc-public-safety-audio/id211598412?ign-mpt=uo%3D4 for audio.

See http://media.csosa.gov for our radio shows, blog and transcripts.

Transcript available at http://media.csosa.gov/podcast/transcripts/.

We welcome your comments or suggestions at leonard.sipes@csosa.gov or at Twitter at http://twitter.com/lensipes.

The host is Leonard Sipes. The CSOSA producer is Timothy Barnes.