Abt Awarded $1.5M Grant From the National Institute of Justice to Examine Probation and Parole Field Practices
Rockville, Md. – With momentum moving away from mass incarceration, community supervision will become an increasingly important part of the justice system. But there’s little evidence about what the best practices are for conducting parole and probation field work. We hope to contribute to this evidence gap through a $1.5 million grant awarded to Abt Global by the National Institute of Justice to conduct an experimental test of rehabilitative field work practices in probation and parole agencies.
This work builds on Abt’s recently completed qualitative and quasi-experimental evaluation of probation and parole field work and will fill a crucial evidence gap in our understanding of community supervision. The previous work produced inconclusive results about the effectiveness of field work, but identified important variations in how different agencies conduct field work. The new work will involve a rigorous randomized controlled trial of rehabilitative approaches to field work that will more directly examine this issue.
“With this study, Abt will be able to start answering some of these questions about what works in community supervision,” says Holly Swan, who will serve as principal investigator. “The findings will provide agencies with evidence for what works in the field for both promoting a person’s success on supervision and maintaining public safety in the community.”
The American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) will assist Abt in disseminating the findings of the study to the field.
About Abt Global
Abt Global is an engine for social impact, dedicated to moving people from vulnerability to security. Harnessing the power of data and our experts’ insights, we provide research, consulting and technical services globally in the areas of health, environmental and social policy, technology and international development. http://www.abtglobal.com
Contact:
Stan Crock
stan_crock@abtassoc.com
(301) 347-5402
