Brian Lovins, PhD Assistant Director Harris County CSCD Stepping Down from the Ivory Tower: Lessons Learned in Taking Theory to Practice Brian Lovins, PhD Assistant Director Harris County CSCD

I was wrong—never listen to anyone in academia …Just Kidding…

What did we get right?

There Are Some Things We Got Right Risk Principle Need Principle Responsivity Principle Fidelity Principle

There Are Some Things We Got Right Risk assessment is imperative People need new skills to behave differently Punishment alone does not change behavior To change behavior we have to do something different than provide rules and monitor behavior

Risk Assessment Is Imperative Clearly need to separate out low and not low risk offenders Need to concentrate our efforts on those that cannot self-correct (need new skills) Target criminogenic risk factors – not just compliance

People Need Skills to Change Behavior Clients Staff Handle high risk situations Manage peers Improve problem solving Maintain employment Remain sober Build rapport Understand risk assessment Teach skills Develop case plans Address cognition

Punishment Does Not Change Behavior

Monitoring Conditions Only Giving people a set of rules and monitoring those rules does nothing to change behavior Urinalysis Study (Tillyer, Lovins, Tillyer; Under Review) High Risk Offenders/High Sub Abuse Needs Frequency of drug tests has no deterrent effect No significant difference between weekly to every other month—less likely to be positive if tested quarterly Low Risk Offenders/No Sub Abuse Needs More frequent drug tests = no correlation, less tested less likely to test positive

We Have to Look at What We Are Doing

But You Probably Recognize This?

Effectiveness of the QWERTY v DVORAK Some dispute findings but most accept DVORAK 33% fewer errors Guinness Book of World Records 212 words a minute with DVORAK 30 times less stressful to hands Ergonomically superior Alternate hands 70% of the keys used are on one row

Why QWERTY over DVORAK? QWERTY was more effective for typewriters Why was it not adopted once technology advanced? We already know what we are doing. We have been doing this for so long. It works the way we are doing it. It is too expensive to change. It will take too much to relearn what I am doing.

But We may Have Missed the Boat on many as well

Organizational Change C - C = C Why do we do what we do? Leadership Matters Policies are only half the battle Integrate technology into the work

C – C = C

Introducing Different Practices Assumption: Well intentioned people will change what they do when they find out what they are doing doesn’t have an impact I don’t think we ever realized how invested the staff was in what they did, not why they did it

Why Are Staff Invested in What They Do? Tasks are Clear Predictable Understandable Safe Do this when this happens See this person at this rate UA this person this many times We actually had staff seeing clients on the 30th of the month and the 1st of the next month to satisfy monthly contact orders

Changing Client Behavior Supervisors Are Often 2nd Layer Direct Line Staff Changing Client Behavior Referee Coach

Growing Staff’s Skills – Not Compliance Consider how your agency uses supervisors Constantly reviewing, checking, and fixing staff’s work Ensuring that correctional professionals are doing their job (i.e. tasks) Provide checklists, reports, etc that work is done

Policies Are Only Half the Battle We should revisit the way we write policies Policies that tell us what to do are limiting Our clients have complex problems, and sometimes need complex solutions Our policies should reflect the complexity and therefore should be written as decision matrices

Integrating Technology

Using the CMS to Drive Work Flow CHECK IN INTERVENTION PLAN ACHIEVE As we move forward with the case management system, our CSOs will have 4 steps to an office visit.

CHECK IN Conditions Commit no offense against the law Not use, possess, or consume any illegal drug Report as requested … Track compliance at each contact Case Plan Prioritizations of expectations Treatment expectations and timing Due dates of current target Monitor case plan and document progress The check in will be where the CSO tracks compliance with conditions and manages the case plan progress.

Commit no offense against the law Conditions Commit no offense against the law Not use, possess, or consume any illegal drug Report as requested … Graduated responses Change in contacts Change in UA frequency Referral to treatment Admonishment Violation Report Community service time/location specified We will document any efforts to address the conditions and acknowledge progress/deferred on each condition so we can manage the pattern of responses.

Target criminogenic needs Address barriers to services INTERVENTION Target criminogenic needs Address barriers to services Restructure criminal attitudes Assist in developing problem solving skills Reinforce progress and address inappropriate behavior The intervention portion of the meeting will be the CSO working with the client on any of the treatment/criminogenic targets. We will use skills learned through core correctional practices and EPICS (moving forward) to address some of these targets. We will also work with the client to reduce barriers and engage them in the community. A primary resource to assist in making referrals is https://www.unitedwayhouston.org/our-211-helpline. Here staff can look for different referrals by need, zip code etc.

Expectations until the next visit Upcoming due dates PLAN Next steps Expectations until the next visit Upcoming due dates The plan section is designed to keep the client up-to-date on his/her expectations and potential due dates.

Review of accomplishments ACHIEVE Review of accomplishments Completed treatment Attended meetings No law violations Negative UAs Employed Achieve is used to acknowledge the growth and commitment the client has made to change. We will summarize the events they have completed up to this point. This should be updated at each meeting.

Dashboards

Where Do We Go From Here Staff need the context and a reason to do the work Training needs to be in context with agency Explore ways to integrate technology Develop dashboards to help staff see when they are doing a good job

Thanks! For any additional information please email me Brian.Lovins@csc.hctx.net