Traditional Probation & Intensive Supervision ... - Ottawa County

INTRODUCTIONThe Department of Probation and Community Corrections is a division of the 58 th District Court and isresponsible for administering the Traditional Probation and Intensive Supervision Probation (ISP) programs.Probation is designed to serve as an alternative to incarceration by allowing convicted offenders to live andwork in the community, receive rehabilitative services, and make restitution to the victims of their crimes. Anoffender who is convicted of a crime by the Courts is generally placed “on probation” for a predeterminedperiod of time and must abide by certain conditions as set forth by the Court. The probationers are under thesupervision of a probation officer while in the program. An overview of the history and use of probation in thecriminal justice system is provided in Attachment B.Traditional Probation is imposed on individuals who are either first-time or repeat offenders with substanceabuse and/or anger-management issues. Traditional probationers may be sentenced to participate in the programfor up to 24 months. ISP participants are typically repeat offenders with a substance abuse problem. The ISPprogram requires 6 months to complete, and upon completion, offenders are required to participate inTraditional Probation for the remainder of their sentence.A Strategic Plan was developed by representatives from the Department of Probation and CommunityCorrections, the Sheriff’s Office, and the Planning and Grants Department in order to define the outcome-basedmeasures that would be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the probation programs. This plan includes aStrategic Outline (Attachment C) that identifies the specific Program Goals, Objectives, and PerformanceMeasures, as well as a Program and Data Flow Analysis, Database Model, and Data Collection Tools(Attachments D-F).This evaluation assesses the administrative and operational performance of the Traditional Probation and ISPprograms, recidivism 1 rates for participants, and overall program cost.1. Recidivism is defined as any new conviction occurring after successful program completion.Evaluation: Traditional and ISP Probation Page 2 Prepared by: Ottawa County Planning Department (08/03/07)