NCJ Number
224197
Journal
Federal Probation: A Journal of Correctional Philosophy and Practice Volume: 72 Issue: 1 Dated: June 2008 Pages: 28-36
Date Published
June 2008
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this study was to analyze a rural school-based probation program in terms of individual, organization, and system barriers to implementation and delivery.
Abstract
The implementation and delivery of the school-based probation program was disastrously affected by individual practitioner, organization, and systemic barriers. The individual practitioner barriers included inexperienced staff, turnover, role confusion, and role conflict. Organization barriers to the implementation and delivery consisted of the location of the program offices, a lack of communication between school-based probation officers (SBOs), line officers, supervisors and the school, “territorial noncooperation” between SBOs and line officers, and workload disparities. The individual and organization barriers were compounded by the existence of systemic barriers in the form of noncooperation between the school and probation department and the failure to incorporate treatment services into the program structure. In this particular program, these factors paralyzed the effective operation of the program. Because process evaluations are intended to examine how programs are implemented, they are particularly useful for identifying barriers to effective program implementation. In this paper, the implementation of a school-based probation program in a rural county in the Midwest is examined. The study was designed to explore the individual, organizational, and systemic barriers to implementation that inhibited program development and evaluation. References