CostEffective Strategies to Improve Public Safety and Reduce Recidivism

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Cost-Effective Strategies to Improve Public
Safety and Reduce Recidivism 

• Judge Roger K. Warren (Ret.)
• President Emeritus
• National Center for State Courts

South Carolina Sentencing Reform Commission
Columbia, South Carolina April 30, 2009
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Sentencing/Corrections Flowchart
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Purposes of Sentencing

• Just Deserts punishment proportionate to the
  gravity of the crime
• Public Safety
• Rehabilitation/Specific Deterrence Recidivism
  Reduction
• General Deterrence
• Incapacitation/Control
• Restitution/Restoration

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State Sentencing Reform The Recent History

• Pre-1975 the Rehabilitative Ideal
• Rapid rise in violent crime
• Disparities
• Nothing works
• 1975-2005 Determinate Sentencing

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Sentencing Reform The Recent History (cont.)

• The Consequences
• Highest incarceration rates in the world
• Unprecedented recidivism rates
• Rapidly growing costs
• Great disparities
• Diminishing benefit of incapacitation
• Same violent crime rate as mid-70s
• We know what works

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What is done today in corrections would be
grounds for malpractice in medicine.

• (2002) Latessa, Cullen, and Gendreau, Beyond
  Correctional Quackery

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State Chief Justices

• Top concerns of state trial judges
• in felony cases
• High rates of recidivism
• Ineffectiveness of traditional probation
  supervision in reducing recidivism
• Absence of effective community corrections
  programs

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State Chief Justices Top two reform objectives

• Reduce recidivism through expanded use of
  evidence-based practices, programs that work, and
  offender risk and needs assessment tools
• Promote the development, funding, and utilization
  of community-based programs for appropriate
  offenders

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Principles of EBP

• Risk Principle (Who)
• Needs Principle (What)
• Responsivity Principle (How)

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Putting more and more offenders on probation
just perpetuates the problem.The same people are
picked up again and again until they end up in
the state penitentiary and take up space that
should be used for more violent offenders.

• Judge Herb Klein
• Miami, Florida
• November, 1988

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Risk Principle(Who)

• The level of supervision or services
• should be matched to the risk level
• of the offender i.e., higher risk
• offenders should receive more
• intensive supervision and services.

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Needs Principle(What)

• The targets for intervention should
• be those offender characteristics
• that have the most effect on the
• likelihood of re-offending.

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Risk of Heart Attack

• 1) Elevated LDL and low HDL levels
• 2) Smoking
• 3) Diabetes
• 4) Hypertension
• 5) Abdominal obesity
• 6) Psychosocial (i.e., stress/depression)
• 7) Failure to eat fruits and vegetables
• 8) Failure to exercise

Adapted from slide presentation by Dr. Chris
Lowencamp
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Dynamic Risk Factors

• Anti-social attitudes
• Anti-social friends and peers
• Anti-social personality pattern
• Family and/or marital factors

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Anti-Social Personality Pattern

• Lack of self-control
• Risk taking
• Impulsive
• Poor problem solving
• Lack of empathy
• Narcissistic
• Anger and hostility

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Dynamic Risk Factors

• Anti-social attitudes
• Anti-social friends and peers
• Anti-social personality pattern
• Family and/or marital factors
• Substance abuse
• Education issues
• Employment issues
• Anti-social leisure activities

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Responsivity Principle(How)

• The most effective services in
• reducing recidivism are cognitive
• behavioral interventions based on
• social learning principles.

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Social Learning Behaviors Have Consequences

• Positive
• Rewards
• Incentives

• Negative
• Sanctions should be swift, certain,
  proportionate, and graduated
• Sanctions do not need to be severe

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BEHAVIOR
Visible
THOUGHTS FEELINGS
Sometimes Aware
COGNITIVE STRUCTURE (BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES)
Beneath the Surface
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T4C Recidivism Rates
50 reduction in recidivism compared to
traditional probation
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What Doesnt Work

• Punishment, sanctions, or incarceration
• Specific deterrence, or fear-based programs (e.g.
  Scared Straight)
• Physical challenge programs
• Military models of discipline and physical
  fitness (e.g. Boot Camps)
• Intensive supervision without treatment

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Washington State Institute for Public Policy

• Meta-analysis of 571 studies
• Cautious approach
• Adult EB programs reduce recidivism 10-20, with
  a benefit/cost ratio of 2.51
• Moderate increase in EBP would avoid 2 new
  prisons, save 2.1 billion, and reduce crime rate
  by 8.

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EBP for Policy Makers

• Show me the money!
• Show me the data!

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Sentencing/Corrections Flowchart
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Cost-Effective Strategies to Improve Public
Safety and Reduce Recidivism 

• Judge Roger K. Warren (Ret.)
• President Emeritus
• National Center for State Courts

South Carolina Sentencing Reform Commission
Columbia, South Carolina April 30, 2009