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| Inmate testing called failure |
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| Published: 09/08/2011 |
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CALIFORNIA - The state auditor is recommending that California's corrections system shut down tests that determine what rehabilitation prisoners need, calling the tools unproven and little used. Since 2006, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has developed and repeatedly revised the assessments, called Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS). It is composed of two tests. The first is given to incoming inmates, gauging levels of criminal thinking, violence, substance abuse and educational needs. The other assessment is for prisoners about to go on parole and is different from the first in that it measures housing and employment prospects on the outside. In a report released Tuesday, auditors found numerous shortcomings in how prisons have used assessment scores. Rank-and-file officers within the corrections system show "a lack of buy-in on COMPAS" and doubt the tests are useful, the report states. The department often fails to use the scores when deciding where to place inmates, and few inmates even receive the exams. State prison officials acknowledge problems highlighted by the auditor, but strongly disagree with the overall conclusion. The corrections department plans to continue, upgrade and expand the assessments. "We refuse to return to the method of simply placing an offender in the next slot available -- regardless of their criminogenic needs," Corrections Undersecretary Scott Kernan wrote in response to the audit. The tests represent a major culture shift for California's prison system, said Lee Seale, internal oversight and research director for the department. Such changes come hard. "Obviously, with over 60,000 staff, you're going to find pockets of resistance here and there throughout the institutions and parole regions," Seale said. "We're not surprised by that." California is one of 19 states that assess inmates for both risk of criminal behavior and their criminogenic needs. Prisons long have relied on risk assessments, based in large part on records like rap sheets, to decide where to house inmates. Needs assessments rely on question-and-answer sessions with trained psychologists that are used to calculate how best to rehabilitate prisoners. If prisoners show a high risk to commit future offenses, then they likely have a significant need for rehabilitation in their criminal thinking. Rather than merely categorizing prisoners, as risk assessments do, needs testing aims to make convicts less dangerous and more productive. Read More. |
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