New Directions in Community Supervision Research: Research Practice Partnerships, Client and Staff Perceptions

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

Probation and parole offices are increasingly embracing evidence-based practices (EBPs) for improving community supervision. Such practices often span multiple logics, including punishment, surveillance and control, and rehabilitation. Although probation and parole are common in the United States, efforts to improve such practices are hampered by gaps in knowledge, including on: how the characteristics of community supervision sentences, clients, and supervision conditions are associated with client success; the perceptions of community supervision practices among clients and supervision staff, including the perceived efficacy of these practices and their implications for staff discretion; and the barriers to implementing EBPs in rural areas and any needed adaptations. This panel begins to address these gaps and features three studies that, respectively: 1) use advanced matching and discontinuity techniques to examine what probation conditions and services are associated with probation success and leverages a research-practice partnership to build the evidence base, 2) draw on survey data on probation/parole service provision and client experiences to examine the predictors of client’s perceived “probation efficacy,” and 3) use semi-structured interviews of 60 probation/parole agents to better understand their perceptions and responses to EBPs. Each presentation explores the implications of their findings for localities across the rural-urban continuum.

Sub Unit

• Area VI. The Criminal Justice System / 49. Community Corrections

Individual Presentations

• Promoting Better Probation Practice: A Landscape Analysis in Allegheny County - Nicholas Goldrosen, Pennsylvania State University / Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing; Noah Painter-Davis, Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing / Pennsylvania State University; Sanjeev Baidyaroy, Fifth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Criminal Division; Matthew Kleiman, Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing

• Community Supervision in Rural Context: An Examination of Officer Practices and Client Efficacy - Gwyneth Evans, Pennsylvania State University; Pamela Wilcox, Pennsylvania State University

• Probation/Parole Agents’ Perceptions of Evidence-Based Practices - Nicolette Bardele, The Pennsylvania State University

Discussant

• Noah Painter-Davis, Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing / Pennsylvania State University