Topics
The Center has three decades of experience providing assistance to jurisdictions across the nation on a variety of issues and topics related to criminal justice, including offender management, collaboration as a method to enhance justice-related efforts, offender assessment and decisionmaking, and the application of evidence-based practice and other innovations to criminal justice work. The Center also supports the integration of new and innovative criminal justice philosophies and practices into the work of policymakers and practitioners.
Management of Offenders, Including Special Populations
The 5.7 million offenders managed by correctional agencies represent a heterogeneous population in terms of their criminal history, the risks they represent to the community, factors underlying their criminal behavior and those interventions most effective in reducing recidivism and enhancing public safety. The Center has developed expertise specifically regarding the management of sex offenders, drug and alcohol–involved offenders, probation and parole violators, domestic violence offenders, and women offenders. Center staff are expert in providing policymakers and practitioners with the information and tools essential to the effective management of various offender populations. Click here for examples of our work in this area.
Collaboration in the Criminal Justice Environment
Criminal justice practitioners increasingly appreciate the need for collaboration in addressing problems that cross traditional boundaries of organizations and levels of government, and reach into the private sector and the community. The Center has considerable expertise in assisting agencies to forge effective and long–lasting collaborative relationships across both public and private sector agencies. In fact, developing skills to support collaboration is inherent in virtually all the work that the Center does. Click here for examples of our work in this area.
Criminal Justice Assessment and Decisionmaking
At least in part because of the size and complexity of correctional populations, a core responsibility of system actors is the careful assessment of offenders, followed by the effective use of information derived from assessments to inform key decisionmaking. The Center has for many years assisted criminal justice decisionmakers to understand the available research and tools for assessment and to integrate these into a rational and informed decisionmaking process—whether for purposes of release planning, supervision, treatment, or appropriately responding to violations of supervision conditions. Click here for examples of our work in this area.
Implementing Innovations in Criminal Justice
Since the inception of the Center in 1981, underlying thinking about the purposes and philosophical bases for justice practice has evolved and changed significantly. Through these changes, the Center has worked with policymakers and practitioners as emerging philosophies and approaches have been considered and implemented. A byproduct of these experiences has been the development of a rich knowledge base about a variety of innovations in justice and their implications for practice. Click here for examples of our work in this area.