Assessing the evaluation and effectiveness of day reporting centers (DRCs): Insights from a systematic review

• In Event: Advancing Community Supervision: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Interventions and Reform Strategies"

Abstract

This paper presents provisional results and methodological reflections relating to a systematic review and meta-analysis of day reporting centers (DRCs). The DRC model emerged in Great Britain in the 1960s and was first seen in the U.S. a couple of decades later. The operationalization of the DRC model varies, and some programs resembling DRCs do not coin this programmatic title. While a prior systematic review (Wong et al., 2019) found limited effects, the current review extends the literature to include more recent studies, and studies of programs that resemble DRCs without using the DRC label. We specifically focus on programs in which participants are required to make multiple appearances at a center each week, where they will often receive rehabilitative programming. The paper will present headline program effects and will consider how effects vary according to differing comparisons, including community-based and incarceration conditions. Additionally, the paper will consider common methodological ambiguities and weaknesses in the research designs within extant DRC literature, with broader lessons for community corrections program evaluations.

Authors

• Joel Miller, Rutgers University

• Anthony Mark Azari, Rutgers University, Newark

• Nicole M. Swiderski, New Jersey State Parole Board

• Marina K. Saad, Fairleigh Dickinson University