NCJ Number
70834
Journal
Evaluation and Program Planning Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: (1980) Pages: 45-52
Date Published
1980
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article describes both an alternative approach to intensive community treatment and a simple, low-cost method of evaluating such a program.
Abstract
The Complex Offender Project (COP) provided comprehensive community treatment to probationers who had histories of prior legal involvement as well as psychiatric or psychological difficulties. In Dane County, Wis., the typical complex offender was a young white male who had been involved with the juvenile courts and was convicted of several adult offenses resulting in sentences of jail or probation. For the COP evaluation, clients were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and followed through participation in structured interviews for up to 28 months after referral at 4-month intervals. Just before the project was terminated, client-consumer questionnaires were mailed to all complex offenders who had been involved with either the project's experimental or control groups. Of the 114 questionnaires mailed, 66 were returned, 49 in a completed form, and 17 uncompleted. Compared with traditional probation, COP was perceived as being more continuously helpful as it taught valuable skills that were still useful at the time of the survey. Consumer evaluation yielded results that were especially interesting to the public and decisionmakers, and this type of evaluation may offer an alternative to traditional evaluation strategies that have been expensive, unwieldy, and sometimes unproductive. Tabular data, a note, and nine references are included.