Probation’s Risk-Needs Assessment Process in a Nutshell

For the past few years, the Section of Community Corrections of the Division of Adult Correction has been transitioning to what they call “evidence-based practices,” or EBP. The basic idea is to use series of assessment tools to identify which offenders are mostly likely to reoffend and most in need of programming, and then tailor their supervision accordingly. The process involves some terminology that is probably familiar by now to most probation officers, but may be less familiar to judges, lawyers, and defendants. Today’s post provides an overview of the process probation officers use to sort probationers into different supervision levels and an introduction into what those levels mean for probationers as a practical matter.