The ten practice targets for paroling authorities—which form the basis for this guide—are designed to assist paroling authorities to:
- Enhance public safety;
- Contribute to the prudent use of public resources;
- Offer an important opportunity for victims of crime to be respectfully heard and acknowledged;
- Preserve paroling authority discretion;
- Provide important transparency and credibility; and
- Insulate paroling authorities in the event of community failures.
These practices are:
- Supported by the research as effective in enhancing public safety and the prudent use of public resources;
- Embraced as "best practices" by the field; and
- Articulated by the National Parole Resource Center's project advisers and leadership.
The ten practice targets are:
- Use good, empirically-based actuarial tools to assess risk and criminogenic needs of offenders.
- Develop and use clear, evidence-based, policy-driven decisionmaking tools, policies, and guidelines that reflect the full range of a paroling authority's concerns (e.g., punishment, victim issues, community safety, etc.).
- Maintain meaningful partnerships with institutional corrections and community supervision (and others) to encourage a seamless transition process and the availability of sound, evidence-based programs.
- Use their influence and leverage to target institutional and community resources to mid and high risk offenders to address their criminogenic needs.
- Consider for release at the earliest stage possible—in light of statutes and other sentencing interests—offenders assessed as low risk.
- Use the parole interview/hearing/review process as an opportunity to—among other goals—enhance offender motivation to change.
- Fashion condition setting policy to minimize requirements on low risk offenders, and target conditions to criminogenic needs of medium and high risk offenders.
- Develop policy-driven, evidence-informed responses to parole violations that incorporate considerations of risk, criminogenic need and severity, assure even-handed treatment of violators, and utilize resources wisely.
- Develop and strengthen case-level decision making skills/capacities in these areas.
- Develop and strengthen agency level policy making, strategic management and performance measurement skills/capacities.
The NPRC has developed a Self- Assessment Toolkit for Paroling Authorities to provide a structured, self-assessment guide to assist paroling authorities to consider their current practices, and the degree to which they mirror the National Parole Resource Center's practice targets for risk reduction. By completing this Toolkit, paroling authority members can gain preliminary insight into how their practices compare to these targets, and where they might want to focus further attention in strengthening their work in the future.
Target 1 >