Project Products for Use by Community Corrections Professionals
Since 1997, the State Justice Institute, along with its federal agency partners, the National Institute of Corrections and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, has supported the development of a series of products designed to support the establishment or enhancement of collaborative criminal justice efforts. The following products will be particularly useful to community corrections officials who are interested in forming multi–disciplinary, collaborative teams aimed at the development and enhancement of criminal justice policy and the effective management of offenders under community supervision:
Case Studies (2005)
The project has developed in—depth case studies that describe the efforts
of three jurisdictions that sought assistance to sustain and improve their
collaborative efforts. All three jurisdictions formed collaborative teams
whose membership contained community corrections officials. These case studies
provide examples of the types of challenges that community corrections officials
face when participating in a collaborative with professionals from different
disciplines.
Strafford
County, New Hampshire
Gallatin
County, Montana
Salt
Lake City, Utah
Collaboration: A Training Curriculum to Enhance the Effectiveness of Criminal Justice Teams (2005)
www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/2005
Collaboration Curriculum.pdf
www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/2005
Collaboration Curriculum Slides.zip
The information and exercises contained in this curriculum can be used specifically by community corrections professionals who wish to form, or improve the work of, a multi–disciplinary, collaborative team. For new teams, the curriculum will help build a successful team; for established teams, the curriculum will assist team members in evaluating their effectiveness. The exercises provided will help teams form a vision and mission for their work together, identify roles and responsibilities of team members, discover group dynamics that may be affecting the team’s work, discuss the barriers and opportunities facing the team, and develop an action plan.
The Emergence of Collaboration as the Preferred Approach in Criminal Justice (2005)
www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/The
Emergence of Collaboration.doc
Collaboration has great potential in the community corrections field as
a tool to create more responsive solutions to crime in our communities. While
many criminal justice leaders and practitioners shy away from collaborative
ventures, there are a growing number who truly believe in the power of collaboration
to create positive systems change and are willing to devote time and effort
to such processes. As this paper suggests, the difficulty of creating collaborative
responses within the criminal justice system cannot be overlooked. However,
the challenging nature of this work should not preclude us from expanding
and enhancing collaborative criminal justice efforts in order to better protect
and support our communities.
The Importance of Data and Information in Achieving Successful Criminal Justice Outcomes (2006)
www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/Collaboration
Data Monograph.doc
The efforts of community corrections professionals to form a collaborative
team will yield better results when key stakeholders join together to collect,
understand, and use data and information as the basis to their policy development
work. This monograph focuses on the rationale for using data to inform policy
development, the sources of these data, and provides references for additional
resource materials to guide the development of data collection plans.
The Role of Facilitators and Staff in Supporting Collaborative Teams (2006)
www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/The
Role of Facilitators and Staff in Supporting Collaborative Teams.doc
For community corrections collaboratives to be truly effective, facilitation
and staffing support are essential ingredients for success. This document
describes the roles of these individuals, the skill set necessary for facilitators
and staff to advance the work of teams, the responsibilities these individuals
typically carry, and resources to enhance the effectiveness of these key team
members.
The Importance of Collaborative Leadership in Achieving Effective Criminal Justice Outcomes (2006)
www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/The
Importance of Collaborative Leadership.doc
As community corrections professionals are increasingly called upon to
collaborate in an effort to more effectively address the challenges facing
them in their work with offenders, this monograph focuses on the importance
of leadership in achieving effective outcomes, the unique qualities and skills
of leaders, and their role on the collaborative team.
Five Reasons Why Judges Should Become More Involved in Establishing, Leading, and Participating on Collaborative, Policy–Focused Teams (2006)
www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/Judges on Collaborative Teams Paper.pdf
This monograph addresses the critically important role judges play in convening and leading collaborative teams focused on enhancing the administration of justice and the ethical considerations surrounding judges’ participation on such teams. For community corrections professionals who seek to form a multidisciplinary, collaborative team, this document will highlight: why the perspective of the judge is so unique, how judges’ participation helps to bring other stakeholders to the table, and why their involvement or leadership of such teams is essential to achieving meaningful outcomes.
Collaborating for Justice: Involvement of Judges in Criminal Justice Collaborations (2006)
www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/Involvement of Judges in Criminal Justice Collaborations.pdf
As the effectiveness of collaborative approaches to addressing challenges within the criminal justice system become more apparent—including those challenges confronting the community corrections field—judges are more often called upon to collaborate with others in order to successfully elicit policy and system change. This article addresses the unique challenges and benefits collaboration poses to the judiciary and those responsible for administering justice through the courts.