NCJ Number
226727
Date Published
June 2008
Length
96 pages
Annotation
This monograph introduces both corrections and treatment professionals to innovative and cutting-edge information about the current state of evidence that informs effective correctional treatments, covering four interrelated topics: what is evidence-based practice; principles of effective correctional treatment; common therapeutic factors; and specific evidence-based modalities for criminal justice clients.
Abstract
Corrections professionals must manage and supervise offenders who present with high-risk behaviors and complex, overlapping problems. To effectively work with these multi-problem offenders and reduce recidivism, corrections professionals must work collaboratively with professionals in other fields, particularly those providing behavioral healthcare. To improve and achieve collaboration between correctional professionals and behavioral healthcare providers, this monograph attempts to de-mystify what is known as Evidence-based Practices (EBP), and attempts to provide a definition of evidence-based practice that synthesizes the values and empirical wisdom from both corrections and behavioral healthcare. The monograph delineates a catalogue of specific intervention models or principles that have been empirically demonstrated to reduce recidivism. With the intention to strengthen and improve the dissemination of evidence-based rehabilitative technologies for offenders, this monograph has several goals: (1) to provide a conceptual framework for understanding effective clinical practices with clients in the criminal justice system; (2) to examine what is known about effective practice in corrections and how these empirically supported models and principles should be integrated into behavioral healthcare for offenders; (3) to review what works generally in behavioral healthcare for different problems, the common factors; and (4) to discuss some of the specific modalities that are widely considered evidence-based clinical practices for clients in the criminal justice system, such as Motivational Interviewing, Contingency Management, and empirically supported psychopharmacology. Figures, appendix, and references