NCJ Number
238128
Date Published
January 2010
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the impact on recidivism of Washington State's 1999 Offender Accountability Act (OAA).
Abstract
The OAA directs the State Department of Corrections (DOC) to classify felony offenders according to their risk for future offending as well as the amount of harm they have caused society in the past. It also directs the DOC to deploy more staff and rehabilitative resources to higher risk offenders. This study of the OAA's impact on offender recidivism produced two key findings. First, the general increase in recidivism over the past 20 years is largely explained by the increased risk level of the offender population. Since the OAA was implemented, however, the trend in recidivism rates since 2002 have been lower than expected based on past trends. This report advises, however, that the statistical analysis performed for this study could not determine whether this change is specifically due to the implementation of the OAA provisions or to other policies or unknown factors operative during the same time period. This uncertainty about the impact on recidivism that can be attributed to the implementation of OAA is because some offenders are supervised more intensely based on their risk assessment. Likewise, there may be a decreased probability that new crimes will be detected when offenders assessed as being low risk are supervised less. Consequently, the findings of the current study could be used to provide support for or against the impact on recidivism of the change in supervision policy mandated by the OAA. 4 exhibits and 15 notes