Opportunity-Reduction Supervision Strategies With Domestic and Family Violence Probationers and Parolees

Many forms of supervision strategies traditionally utilized by probation and parole officers emphasize service brokerage, case management, and compliance. Conversely, there is a growing evidence-base that demonstrates how community corrections practices can be (and have been) improved through supervision frameworks of behavior change oriented around criminogenic needs. Toward this end, recent advances in penology have applied the tenets of environmental criminology theories to community corrections practices, seeking to identify and modify each individual’s opportunity-based risks for reoffending. In this article, using data from an Australian experimental trial, we explore the utility of an “Environmental Corrections” approach to the supervision of domestic and family violence perpetrators serving probation and parole orders, an offending cohort with growing political and public pressures. Quantitative analyzes indicate that this opportunity-reduction supervision framework was effective in reducing recidivism among all offenders. Amongst probationers and parolees on community corrections orders for domestic and family violence offenses only, rates of reoffending were 15.41% lower for offenders at the treatment site compared to the control site, although this difference was not statistically significant. A thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with these clients highlights that through the Environmental Corrections trial, they learned strategies for identifying, avoiding, and resisting opportunities to reoffend. Combined, this evidence suggests that opportunity-reduction supervision tactics may hold promise for limiting recidivism amongst domestic and family violence perpetrators, although further research is required.

The Connections of Parole and Probation Agent Communication Patterns With Female Offenders' Job-Seeking Self-Efficacy

Using subsamples of 130 and 96 women on probation and parole, this research explores the direct effect of the supervising agent's communication patterns on client job-seeking self-efficacy. It also tests for the mediating effect through client psychological reactance, which is a feeling that one's freedoms are threatened. Agent and client reports of a conformity pattern of communication were associated with lower levels of job-seeking self-efficacy. Client reactance mediated this relationship. Agent and client reports of a conversational pattern of communication were associated with increased job-seeking self-efficacy. The results suggest that conformity-oriented communication should be avoided because of its potential to increase reactance and to promote low job-seeking self-efficacy. In contrast, conversational communication appears to have more positive effects on job-seeking self-efficacy. Findings highlight communication as a pathway through which agents can improve behavioral outcomes for women offenders searching for work.

Factors Associated With Receiving Rapid HIV Testing Among Individuals on Probation or Parole

Despite the strong correlation between HIV and corrections, testing and prevention efforts have largely been ignored among community corrections populations. The current study is a secondary analysis to compare characteristics of individuals under community corrections supervision who completed rapid HIV testing with those who refused such testing (N = 2,382) in Baltimore, Maryland, and Providence, Rhode Island. Results indicate that the following variables were significantly associated with the receipt of rapid HIV testing: being female (p = .024), Black race (p = .004), homeless (p = .016), early age of crime onset (p = .001), more drug use during the past 90 days (p = .033), and previously tested for hepatitis C virus/hepatitis B virus (p = .024). Such findings make it especially important that individuals under community supervision be linked with services in the community to ensure that HIV testing and health care planning occur simultaneously.

A partnership approach to providing on-site HIV services for probationers and parolees: a pilot study from Alabama, USA

INTRODUCTION

HIV in the United States is concentrated in the South, an impoverished region with marked health disparities and high rates of incarceration, particularly among African Americans. In the Deep South state of Alabama, a policy directive to reduce prison overcrowding has diverted large numbers of convicted felons to community supervision. Probation and parole offices have yet to provide the HIV education and testing services that are offered in state prisons. This study sought to implement on-site HIV services for probationers and parolees through an intersectoral programme involving law enforcement, university and HIV agency employees. The three main objectives were to (1) involve probation/parole officers in planning, execution and assessment of the programme, (2) provide HIV education to the officers and (3) offer voluntary pretest HIV counselling and testing to probationers and parolees.

METHODS

The partnered programme was conducted between October and December 2015. Offenders who were recently sentenced to probation ("new offenders"), received HIV education during orientation. Offenders already under supervision prior to the programme ("current offenders") learned about the on-site services during scheduled office visits. Outcomes were measured through officer assessments, informal feedback and uptake of HIV services among offenders.

RESULTS

A total of 86 new and 249 current offenders reported during the programme (N=335). Almost one-third (31.4%) of new offenders sought HIV testing, while only 3.2% of current offenders were screened for HIV. Refusals among current offenders invoked monogamy, time pressures, being tested in prison, fear of positive test results and concerns about being labelled as gay or unfaithful to women partners. Officers rated the programme as worthwhile and feasible to implement at other offices.

CONCLUSIONS

The partnership approach ensured support from law enforcement and intersectoral cooperation throughout the programme. HIV training for officers reduced discomfort over HIV and fostered their willingness to be active agents for referral to HIV services. Voluntary testing was enhanced by the HIV employee's educational role, particularly during orientation sessions for new offenders. The almost one-third success rate in HIV testing among new offenders suggests that future efforts should concentrate on this group in order to maximize participation at the probation and parole office.