NCJ Number
79286
Date Published
1980
Length
53 pages
Annotation
Findings are presented from a study that examined the contracting of offender rehabilitation services through formal agreements with agencies external to the criminal justice system.
Abstract
A contact interview was conducted with the 154 agencies meeting the criteria specified for contract providers. At this stage, basic data were collected on facilities, programs, size, funding and referral sources, staffing, and budgets. Thirty organizations operating 42 programs were then selected for indepth analysis. The director's interviews elicited information on the unit's history, mission, corporate structure and management, and interaction with the community. Program interview guides focused on client flows, scale, stages of the treatment process, internal budget allocations, and sources of revenue or other support. Findings show that entities offering correctional services tend to be small (annual budgets under $150,000). The programs offered tend to focus on a problem of type of client, and a high degree of program differentiation appears to exist. Funding is varied and does not come from criminal justice sources in many cases. Average capacity use was less than 100 percent, and the length of client stay varied widely. Other factors affecting costs were whether the service-delivery or referral agency provided screening and diagnosis and the extent to which an organization used volunteers, donated property, etc. Monitoring and other methods of ensuring program accountability ranged from rinancial reports and client rosters to explicit performance measures. If this system of social service delivery is to thrive in the future, more research is needed to develop better definitions of and measures for units of output, estimate and compare the costs associated with service units, and improve the quality of and specificity of written contracts. Tabular data and 18 footnotes are provided.