Selecting a strategy

Strategies or plans are essential to success. Offenders need to work with staff to select the best way to achieve their goal. Coming to an agreement on a strategy allows staff and offenders to clearly outline not only how to go about achieving the offender's goal, but also allows both parties to identify their respective responsibilities. Selecting a strategy will allow the agent and offender to define their supervision roles.

Developing an Action Plan

The purpose of developing an action plan is to outline the steps to achieve the goal. An action plan brings together all of the information and makes it applicable to an offender's life. The action plan should be specific by identifying all of the steps to achieve the desired goal. For example, if the offender has identified a set of friends as a trigger to criminal conduct and has selected developing a new network as the solution, then the question is how will the offender develop this new social network. The action plan would identify the steps which might include: 1) selecting a new location to play sports, 2) joining a new religious or civic organization, 3) planning activities with family members or others, or 4) working with youth that are likely to be involved in criminal conduct. The plan lays out steps to achieve the desire goal.