{ "id": "R44087", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R44087", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 585718, "date": "2018-07-10", "retrieved": "2019-12-20T21:10:35.588506", "title": "Risk and Needs Assessment in the Federal Prison System", "summary": "The number of people incarcerated in federal prisons increased dramatically over the past three decades. While the number of inmates in the federal prison system has decreased since FY2013, the federal prison population remains substantially larger than it was three decades ago.\nConcerns about both the economic and social consequences of the country\u2019s reliance on incarceration have led to calls for reforms to the nation\u2019s criminal justice system, including improving the federal prison system\u2019s ability to rehabilitate incarcerated offenders by better assessing their risk for recidivism and addressing their criminogenic needs. \u201cCriminogenic needs\u201d are factors that contribute to criminal behavior that can be changed and/or addressed through interventions.\nThere have been legislative proposals to implement a risk and needs assessment system in federal prisons. The system would be used to place inmates in appropriate rehabilitative programs. Under the proposed system some inmates would be eligible for earned time credits for completing rehabilitative programs that reduce their risk of recidivism. Such credits would allow inmates to be placed on prerelease custody earlier. The proposed system would exclude inmates convicted of certain offenses from being eligible for earned time credits.\nRisk and needs assessment instruments typically consist of a series of items used to collect data on offender behaviors and attitudes that research indicates are related to the risk of recidivism. Generally, inmates are classified as being at a high, moderate, or low risk of recidivism. Assessment instruments are comprised of static and dynamic risk factors. Static risk factors do not change (e.g., age at first arrest or gender), while dynamic risk factors can either change on their own or be changed through an intervention (e.g., current age, education level, or employment status). In general, research suggests that the most commonly used assessment instruments can, with a moderate level of accuracy, predict who is at risk for violent recidivism. It also suggests that of the most commonly used risk assessments none distinguishes itself from the others when it comes to predictive validity.\nThe Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model has become the dominant paradigm in risk and needs assessment. The risk principle states that convicted offenders need to be placed in programs that are commensurate with their risk level; in other words, provide more intensive treatment and services to high-risk offenders while low-risk offenders should receive minimal or even no intervention. The need principle states that effective treatment should also focus on addressing the criminogenic needs that contribute to criminal behavior. The responsivity principle states that rehabilitative programming should be delivered in a style and mode that is consistent with the ability and learning style of the offender.\nThere are several issues policymakers might contemplate should Congress choose to consider legislation to implement a risk and needs assessment system in federal prisons, including the following: \nIs there the potential for bias in the use of risk and needs assessment? \nShould certain inmates be ineligible for earned time credits?\nShould prison programming focus on inmates at high risk of recidivism? \nShould risk assessment be incorporated into sentencing?\nShould there be a decreased focus on long prison sentences?", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R44087", "sha1": "95bb366d228430939b0be19ce0c307056e08f766", "filename": "files/20180710_R44087_95bb366d228430939b0be19ce0c307056e08f766.html", "images": {} }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R44087", "sha1": "224e4762202b12c3931dbab1096f18300080a714", "filename": "files/20180710_R44087_224e4762202b12c3931dbab1096f18300080a714.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4792, "name": "Criminal Justice Reform" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4887, "name": "Corrections" } ] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 446411, "date": "2015-10-13", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T18:12:28.303648", "title": "Risk and Needs Assessment in the Criminal Justice System", "summary": "The number of people incarcerated in the United States has increased significantly over the past three decades from approximately 419,000 inmates in 1983 to approximately 1.5 million inmates in 2013. Concerns about both the economic and social consequences of the country\u2019s growing reliance on incarceration have led to calls for reforms to the nation\u2019s criminal justice system.\nThere have been legislative proposals to implement a risk and needs assessment system in federal prisons. The system would be used to place inmates in rehabilitative programs. Under the proposed system some inmates would be eligible to earn additional time credits for participating in rehabilitative programs that reduce their risk of recidivism. Such credits would allow inmates to be placed on prerelease custody earlier. The proposed system would exclude inmates convicted of certain offenses from being eligible to earn additional time credits.\nRisk and needs assessment instruments typically consist of a series of items used to collect data on behaviors and attitudes that research indicates are related to the risk of recidivism. Generally, inmates are classified as being high, moderate, or low risk. Assessment instruments are comprised of static and dynamic risk factors. Static risk factors do not change, while dynamic risk factors can either change on their own or be changed through an intervention. In general, research suggests that the most commonly used assessment instruments can, with a moderate level of accuracy, predict who is at risk for violent recidivism. It also suggests that no single instrument is superior to any other when it comes to predictive validity.\nThe Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model has become the dominant paradigm in risk and needs assessment. The risk principle states that high-risk offenders need to be placed in programs that provide more intensive treatment and services while low-risk offenders should receive minimal or even no intervention. The need principle states that effective treatment should focus on addressing needs that contribute to criminal behavior. The responsivity principle states that rehabilitative programming should be delivered in a style and mode that is consistent with the ability and learning style of the offender.\nHowever, the wide-scale adoption of risk and needs assessment in the criminal justice system is not without controversy. Several critiques have been raised against the use of risk and needs assessment, including that it could have discriminatory effects because some risk factors are correlated with race; that it uses group base rates for recidivism to make determinations about an individual\u2019s propensity for re-offending; and that risk and needs assessment are two distinct procedures and should be conducted separately.\nThere are several issues policymakers might contemplate should Congress choose to consider legislation to implement a risk and needs assessment system in federal prisons, including the following: \nShould risk and needs assessment be used in federal prisons? \nShould certain inmates be excluded from earning additional time credits? \nShould risk assessment be incorporated into sentencing?\nShould there be a decreased focus on punishing offenders?", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R44087", "sha1": "32a96636a00c368701625f9e8366ca51f8f3b7be", "filename": "files/20151013_R44087_32a96636a00c368701625f9e8366ca51f8f3b7be.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R44087", "sha1": "32e2c94282fccead2c64a999d4d5cfab09f0d64d", "filename": "files/20151013_R44087_32e2c94282fccead2c64a999d4d5cfab09f0d64d.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 2496, "name": "Crime and Punishment" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc743497/", "id": "R44087_2015Jul24", "date": "2015-07-24", "retrieved": "2015-10-20T21:35:54", "title": "Risk and Needs Assessment in the Criminal Justice System", "summary": "This report provides information on the use of risk and needs assessment in the criminal justice system. It starts with an overview of risk and needs assessment and a discussion of some critiques. The report concludes with a discussion of the issues policymakers might consider if they debate legislation to expand the use of risk and needs assessment in the federal prison system.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20150724_R44087_0c47cc191ecc982888fa182c82ef0099a86eca8d.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20150724_R44087_0c47cc191ecc982888fa182c82ef0099a86eca8d.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Criminal justice", "name": "Criminal justice" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Crime and criminals", "name": "Crime and criminals" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Recidivists", "name": "Recidivists" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Crime prevention", "name": "Crime prevention" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc700810/", "id": "R44087_2015Jun22", "date": "2015-06-22", "retrieved": "2015-08-27T16:20:31", "title": "Risk and Needs Assessment in the Criminal Justice System", "summary": "This report provides information on the use of risk and needs assessment in the criminal justice system. It starts with an overview of risk and needs assessment and a discussion of some of the critiques of it. The report concludes with a discussion of the issues policymakers might consider if they debate legislation to expand the use of risk and needs assessment in the federal prison system.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20150622_R44087_48919de1fee778c375a465562be2901bb63d2a3d.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20150622_R44087_48919de1fee778c375a465562be2901bb63d2a3d.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Criminal justice", "name": "Criminal justice" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Crime and criminals", "name": "Crime and criminals" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Recidivists", "name": "Recidivists" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Imprisonment", "name": "Imprisonment" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Crime Policy" ] }