Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
2015
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Background: This implementation study examined the impact of an organizational process improvement intervention (OPII) on a continuum of evidence based practices related to assessment and community reentry of drug-involved offenders: Measurement/Instrumentation, Case Plan Integration, Conveyance/Utility, and Service Activation/Delivery.
Methods: To assess implementation outcomes (staff perceptions of evidence-based assessment practices), a survey was administered to correctional and treatment staff (n = 1509) at 21 sites randomly assigned to an Early- or Delayed-Start condition. Hierarchical linear models with repeated measures were used to examine changes in evidence-based assessment practices over time, and organizational characteristics were examined as covariates to control for differences across the 21 research sites.
Results: Results demonstrated significant intervention and sustainability effects for three of the four assessment domains examined, although stronger effects were obtained for intra- than inter-agency outcomes. No significant effects were found for Conveyance/Utility.
Conclusions: Implementation interventions such as the OPII represent an important tool to enhance the use of evidence-based assessment practices in large and diverse correctional systems. Intra-agency assessment activities that were more directly under the control of correctional agencies were implemented most effectively. Activities in domains that required cross-systems collaboration were not as successfully implemented, although longer follow-up periods might afford detection of stronger effects.
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Welsh, W. N., Lin, H.-J., Peters, R. H., Stahler, G. J., Lehman, W. E.K., Stein, L.A.R., Monico, L.,...Frisman, L. K. (2015). Effects of a strategy to improve offender assessment practices: Staff perceptions of implementation outcomes. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 152, 230-238. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.03.033
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.03.033
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