NCJ Number
249306
Journal
Drug and Alcohol Dependence Volume: 152 Dated: July 2015 Pages: 230-238
Date Published
August 2015
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This implementation study examined the impact of an organizational process improvement intervention (OPII) on a continuum of evidence-based practices related to assessment and community reentry of drug-involved offenders: measurement/instrumentation, case plan integration, conveyance/utility, and service activation/delivery.
Abstract
Results showed significant intervention and sustainability effects for three of the four assessment domains examined, although stronger effects were obtained for intra- than inter-agency outcomes. No significant effects were found for conveyance/utility. The authors advise that implementations such as the OPII represent an important tool to enhance the use of evidence-based assessment practices in large and diverse correctional systems. Intra-agency assessment activities that were more directly under the control of correctional agencies were implemented most effectively. Activities in domains that required cross-systems collaboration were not as successfully implemented, although longer follow-up periods might afford detection of stronger effects. In order to assess implementation outcomes (staff perceptions of evidence-based assessment practices), a survey was administered to correctional and treatment staff (n = 1,509) at 21 sites randomly assigned to an early- or delayed-start condition. Hierarchical linear models with repeated measures were used to examine changes in evidence-based assessment practices over time, and organizational characteristics were examined as covariates to control for differences across the 21 research sites. (Publisher abstract modified)