2 March 2010
Judges, attorneys, probation officers attend evidence-based sentencing training featuring national expert
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Approximately 100 judges, prosecutors, public defenders, probation and parole officers, and other court staff from around the state gathered Friday, Feb. 26 to learn more about evidence-based sentencing practices to improve public safety and reduce recidivism.
The conference, hosted by the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission and held at the Country Club Hotel & Spa in Lake Ozark, was led by J. Scott Johnston, chief probation supervisor of the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole, and Roger K. Warren, president emeritus of the National Center for State Courts and author of several works about evidence-based sentencing.
“Most of our current sentencing laws were first enacted 30 years ago, at a time when violent crime was on the rise and people were fed up,” said Warren, who previously served 20 years as a trial judge in Sacramento, Calif. “For a time, research seemed to support the idea that nothing but prison works to reduce recidivism. This turned out to be wrong but became a self-fulfilling prophecy nonetheless as resources available for probation and parole services dried up.”
Johnston continued, “There truly was an aura of uncertainty when I first started in probation and parole more than 25 years ago. We thought we knew what worked best, but ultimately research showed us some of our practices and programs were not effective.”
For example, Warren explained, “By putting low-risk nonviolent offenders into prison with high-risk offenders, we’re actually doing harm. We make them worse and increase their risk of recidivism. It is unwise to take them away from the things that make them low-risk: their supports from things such as family, church, jobs and school.”
Evidence-based sentencing aims to assess individual offenders based on corrections principles that are used to reduce recidivism and that statistically are supported by rigorous evaluation against control groups, multiple studies and systematic review. In Missouri, evidence-based sentencing is rooted in nearly 30 years of data from the department of corrections and division of probation and parole. Ultimately, the research underlying evidence-based sentencing helps identify which offenders are at the greatest risk of reoffending, what characteristics lead the offender to commit crimes, and what treatment or correctional services work to reduce the risk of recidivism.
“This is not an either-or proposition,” Warren explained. “In sentencing someone in the community, we can both punish appropriately and do what we can to minimize the risk of reoffending.”
Warren warned against perceiving evidence-based sentencing tools as dictating what sentence is appropriate for a particular offender.
“These tools are not intended to determine the level of punishment,” he said. “They are not designed to determine which offenders should be kept in the community and which should be sent to prison. Instead, they are designed to help change the behavior of offenders who are determined appropriate to keep in the community.
“Evidence-based sentencing tools are designed to inform professional judgment,” Warren continued. “They do not prohibit a judge from deciding how the data apply – or may not apply – to a particular offender. … These tools are most effective when used dynamically, not just for one point in time. Ideally, they should be used to reassess an offender when something – job, family situation, etc. – changes in that offender’s life.”
During the conference, participants also got an opportunity to discuss sentencing and probation practices throughout the state, model programs used in other parts of the United States, system-wide challenges in implementing evidence-based sentencing and actions that can be taken to address those challenges.
“There is really no argument about the research now,” Johnston said. “We do know what works, and we do know what does not work. The challenge is in ensuring quality control as we implement evidence-based sentencing practices, especially for nonviolent offenders, across Missouri with limited resources.”
Friday’s program is part of a national judicial education curriculum about evidence-based sentencing that Warren helped the National Center design and that he is conducting for judges and criminal justice agencies throughout the United States.
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Contact: Beth S. Riggert
Communications Counsel
Supreme Court of Missouri
(573) 751-3676