Improving Corrections Policy: The Importance of Researchers and Practitioners Working Together (Choosing Correctional Options That Work: Defining the Demand and Evaluating the Supply, P 223- 231, 1996, Alan T Harland, ed. -- See NCJ-158983)

• NCJ Number: 158991
• Author(s): J Petersilia
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

After discussing the importance of researchers and practitioners working together to improve corrections policy, this chapter suggests the development of a collaborative framework.

Abstract

The U.S. approach to corrections policy remains in disarray. Corrections is not being directed by those who are most knowledgeable about it; instead, policies are driven by public opinion, fear, and political hype. This situation can be addressed by creating more occasions where academics and practitioners meet to communicate with one another. Practitioners must be involved at the outset in shaping the research agenda and deciding which topics should be given research priority. Creating collaboration cannot be left to informal arrangements among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. All three must cooperate with funding agencies to develop a model for embodying and formalizing this collaborative framework. The model should develop a forum for involving the policy community and researchers in continuing dialog over research questions; interim findings; final results; and implications for policy, practice, and new research. The model should also organize regularly convened conferences that bring members of the research and policy communities together to discuss emerging problems, eliciting their responses to results and helping them use the results in policy and practice.