For Immediate Release: February 27, 2009
Contact: Carla Newman – 303.216.9455
cnewman@npipm.com

Second Chance Act of 2007

Northpointe Institute for Public Management is working with jurisdictions around the country to craft innovative reentry solutions that address the challenges presented by individuals reentering communities from terms in jail and prison. Northpointe offers a variety of technical strategies and solutions to help ensure the outcomes you target are achieved and sustained. We have provided a brief summary below highlighting how assessment and case planning are linked into the funding established for the Second Chance Act.

Section 101 of the newly-funded Second Chance Act reauthorizes the funding of Prisoner Reentry Initiative Demonstration Grants, and clarifies the criteria for grant awards to include "a(7) protecting communities from dangerous felons by using validated assessment tools to assess the risk factors of returning inmates and developing or adopting procedures to insure that dangerous felons are not released from prison prematurely."

Priority for funding under the Prisoner Reentry Initiative will be given to those applicants who "target high-risk offenders for reentry programs through validated risk instruments" and "demonstrate effective case assessment and management abilities in order to provide comprehensive and continuous reentry, including planning while offenders are in prison, jail or a juvenile facility, prerelease transition housing, and community release…"

Effective risk assessment tools have established predictive accuracy on reentry populations, and are nationally-recognized, validated, peer-reviewed and have demonstrated efficacy in measuring both static and dynamic risk and needs. Fourth generation assessment technologies (e.g. COMPAS) link the assessment result with a case planning module that targets the highest-scoring criminogenic issues. The assessment and case planning process produces a recommended course of treatment and programming, targeting identified high need areas in a coordinated, sequenced fashion while the offender is incarcerated, during transition and under community supervision. The risk scores recommend the appropriate supervision level. Ideally, there is a common assessment language across the entire correctional process; from intake, to institutional planning and programming, to reentry, and ending with successful reintegration into the community.

Forty percent of the selection criteria for the Second Chance Act funding are based on program design and implementation, which must include effective assessment and case planning designs.

The Second Chance Act also requires that outcomes be tracked for up to three years following release and that a plan be developed for doing so on a quarterly basis. Outcome measures include, but are not limited to, a reduction in recidivism (defined as a return to prison and/or jail with either a new conviction or a technical violation during the first 12 months following release), and may include other outcomes, such as program participation and treatment performance. Applicants must describe their evidence-based methodology and the validity of their outcome measures.

Northpointe offers software, training and consulting solutions to satisfy many of the above-noted aspects of the Second Chance Act criteria. These solutions include the COMPAS assessment instruments (designed for men and women) for use during prison or jail intake and transition from prison or jail back into communities. In addition, COMPAS provides an integrated case planning module designed to translate identified high-scoring criminogenic needs into an intervention strategy within the incarcerated setting or a Transitional Accountability Plan for offenders returning from prison. The case planning modules built into COMPAS have the capacity to track the outcomes of programming and treatment to which offenders are assigned.

Northpointe suggests that the following information regarding assessment, case planning and outcome tracking be included in your Prisoner Reentry Initiative Demonstration Grant application:

Program Summary:

• Description of the method(s) to be used to identify high-risk reentry populations during incarceration, and the case planning process to be employed in targeting high-scoring, dynamic, criminogenic needs through institutional treatment and programming prior to release.
• Description of the transition process from incarceration to the community, the assessment and case planning tools to be employed to establish a Transitional Accountability Plan, and the method by which that plan is to be modified and amended on an ongoing basis once the offender is in the community.
• Description of the method by which outcome data will be gathered, measured and analyzed across the correctional process to support programming enhancements that support improved offender outcomes.

Target Populations: 

• Definition of the target population, the criteria to be used to identify high-risk inmates reentering the community, and the size of this population in your jurisdiction.

Cost:

• Estimate of the cost of employing a 4^th generation risk assessment tool, with case planning and outcome-tracking capacity, and the cost of training and supporting line staff in its use.

Benefits:

• Description of the benefits of investing in a 4^th generation actuarial risk/needs instrument to assess the reentry population, its utility in making accurate and defensible decisions regarding release, and the long-term benefits of identifying and addressing criminogenic needs, to reduce the risk posed by the reentering offender population and thereby improving public safety in the communities served under the grant proposal.

Note: Please feel free to contact us if we can help you prepare your grant submission.