Offender Capabilities

Individuals differ in their abilities. Two areas that are important to assess are: learning and cognition (thinking). A learning style is how an individual acquires information and then puts it into practice. Some individuals are more studious while others like to learn by doing. For example, alcohol or drug education and the consequences of abuse are designed to increase offender awareness. Other interventions are the "hands on" approach that allow the offender to role play to learn the information. Cognition refers to the ability to absorb and process information. Some offenders are impaired in their cognitive abilities due to substance abuse-they often require that information is presented in small segments to comprehend the core facts. Cognition is important to assess since staff may assume the offender is disobeying the order when in fact he did not understand it.

Staff Issues

To apply the responsivity principle properly, staff should gather information from many different sources to make an informed decision about the offender and appropriate services. Pertinent information that will help identify a problem can be found in case files (to find past resources used), interviews (to denote the offender's interests and capability of handling complex information), and specialized assessment of a target issue (e.g. substance abuse, mental health disorders, and criminal behavior). Every conversation and contact with an offender provides valuable information about the motivation to change. And the cues that are likely to have the greatest effect on that offender.