NCJ Number
203588
Date Published
March 2000
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This document presents a self-administered assessment instrument for use by pretrial program administrators in evaluating their program’s effectiveness.
Abstract
Generally, the effectiveness of any type of program is based on a comparison to the national model of the program, which is based on professional standards for that particular field. The pretrial field has such a standard upon which to gauge success; however, in too many cases, pretrial program administrators base their program’s effectiveness on variables such as failure to appear, rearrest rates, and pretrial detention rates. These are not accurate measures of program effectiveness because such variables represent decisions and actions made by others, not by program staff. As such, this document provides an agency-specific, self-administered assessment tool that incorporates key practices of pretrial programs. The self-assessment tool offers charts that program administrators can use to rate their program’s effectiveness at carrying out each practice listed. The assessment tool is not useful for comparisons of pretrial programs because it is subjectively scored, thus it is for internal use. The assessment tool provides the optimal practices in pretrial services under the categories of “information gathering and assessment practices,” “monitoring and follow-up,” and “management.” Within each of these three categories, the tasks and functions are further broken down for scoring purposes. For examples, under the category of “information gathering and assessment,” administrators score their program on its functioning in “population targeting” and “records check.” In this way, administrators are able to target specific areas for improvement. Appendices list resources that may provide assistance in improving pretrial programs. Tables