Justice System Assessment & Training

Dec. 08, 2009: The United States only accounts for about 5% of the world's population. Why then does the United States account for 25% of incarcerated people (prisoners) in the world? Click on the graphic below to enlarge Created by OnlineEducation.net At J-SAT we provide services that help federal, state, and local correctional agencies safely lower their incarceration rates. There are alternatives to "warehou... »Read More«

Dec. 07, 2009: We were recently awarded a contract to continue to provide LSI-R implementation services for the state of Alaska.  This project will help develop internal training capacity for Alaska as they will be developing new trainers to help train staff on performing LSI-R assessments in their correctional system.  Last year we spent 6 weeks in Alaska training their staff on how to do LSI-R assess... »Read More«

Sep. 16, 2009: Michigan has been dealing with a struggling economy longer than the rest of the nation.  They have been forced to make tough choice and re-think the size of their corrections population and reentry process.  Now, as the rest of the country struggles with the same issues, people are looking to Michigan to see how they are dealing with the crisis and what steps they took to get to where th... »Read More«

Sep. 10, 2009: We are just a week away from our gathering in Denver, Colorado and J-SAT is looking forward to hosting this event for the National Institute of Corrections.  We have created this page to provide critical information about the meeting for those who will be traveling to Denver and participating in the meeting. ***PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE FOLLOWING BEFORE THE MEETING*** Important Contact Informatio... »Read More«

Jul. 23, 2009: “Bringing Sense and Sensitivity to Corrections: From Programs to Fix Offenders to Services to Support Desistance” by Frank Porporino has me thinking.  As you may be able to tell from the title, Porporino is concerned that focusing on risk of recidivism and criminogenic needs may be problem oriented and therefore have a ‘fix-the-offender’ mindset.  He suggests that supporting desistance w... »Read More«

Jul. 07, 2009: In our efforts to implement and move closer to EBPs we often have to contend with a variety of untested assumptions. For example, we might think that line  staff are using assessments to generate case plans, but we don’t know – they might just be using T’s & C’s as the basis for their plans. Moreover, usually it’s not a white or black matter, but one of degree, some officers are doing it... »Read More«

Dec. 03, 2008: The Probation and Parole Treatment Planner is a book I wrote to provide all the elements necessary to quickly and easily develop formal treatment plans that satisfy the demands of HMOs, managed care companies, third-party payors, and state and federal review agencies. The book includes the following chapters: Anger, Assertiveness Deficits, Authority Conflicts, Callousness (Lack of Empathy/Honest... »Read More«

Dec. 03, 2008: This article presents principles of effective evidence-based intervention. Topics discussed include: Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) term clarification; eight principles for effective interventions; components of correctional interventions; implementing EBP principles; applying the principles at the case, agency, and system levels; seven recommended strategies for implementing effective intervention... »Read More«

Dec. 03, 2008: This report instructs correctional personnel in the use of a three-question proxy screening tool for the purpose of moving as many low risk offenders as possible to a minimum supervision caseload right away. The Proxy allows intake personnel to avoid using a more resource-intensive third generation risk tool on all offenders, thereby freeing up time to focus on higher risk populations. Download t... »Read More«

Dec. 03, 2008: The link between substance abuse and crime has long been chronicled. Research shows that matching offender's criminogenic factors with appropriate intervention is effective. In Colorado, substance abuse and other risk factors are measured during pre-sentence investigations, and results are used in sentence recommendations. Using the same instruments, an in-jail treatment program in San Diego focu... »Read More«