"To Improved Offender Outcomes:
Developing Responsive Systems for Substance-Abusing Offenders."
12 Steps to Changes in Policies and Practices
With more than 50 percent of offenders failing to comply with treatment conditions, a cornerstone of recidivism reduction policies is to address the area of noncompliance.
Systemic practices that are used in the treatment field to address compliance:
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Contingency management,
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token economies,
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and behavior modification systems.
Sanctions provide the tools to:
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hold offenders accountable,
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to reduce revocation
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and to control criminal behavior.
Sanction policies must have four main components.
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First, the infractions must be clearly identified, through positive urine tests, missed appointments in treatment or supervision, or failure to abide by program conditions.
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Second, the sanctions must be swift; as a rule, it is important that the sanctions occur within 24 hours of the behavior which reduces the denial of the behavior by the offender. Such a policy also requires that treatment and criminal justice systems respond appropriately to potential crime-producing behavior.
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Third, the sanctions must be certain. Certainty increases the offender's awareness of the consequences for violating the treatment and supervision norms.
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The final component of the sanction schedule is the progressive or increasingly severe responses.
For example, the first positive urine test results in one day in jail, the second positive urine test results in three days in jail, and the third positive urine test results in five days in detoxification. This type of progressive schedule makes clear that the consequences become more severe as the offender continues to persist in his or her negative behavior.
Most treatment programs and probation agencies have their own policies for addressing noncompliance with program conditions. In a seamless system, an agreement must occur across the systems (e.g., multiple agencies) on the protocol and mechanism to respond to noncompliance -- each system cannot have its own separate policies and practices. The agreed-on policies then ensure that treatment and criminal justice agencies respond to noncompliant behavior.