Short -Term Technical Assistance Available for Parole Boards

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is pleased to announce additional support for the activities of the National Parole Resource Center (NPRC), a project that serves as a source of information, training, and technical assistance for paroling authorities and the supervision agencies that they oversee and with whom they collaborate. The NPRC is now able, as resources allow, to provide a limited amount of short-term technical assistance to paroling authorities who are interested in enhancing their work and bringing their policies into alignment with evidence based practices. Specifically, requests will be considered to the extent that they focus on promoting at least one of the following “practice targets” for paroling authorities:
1. Use good, empirically-based, actuarial tools to assess risks and criminogenic needs of offenders;
2. Develop and use clear, evidence-based, policy-driven decisionmaking tools and practices that reflect the full range of a paroling authority’s concerns (e.g., punishment, victim issues, community safety, etc.);
3. Develop meaningful partnerships with institutional corrections and community supervision (and others) to encourage:
a. a seamless transition process;
b. the availability of sound, evidence-based programs;
4. Use their influence and leverage to target institutional and community resources to mid and high risk offenders to address their criminogenic needs;
5. Consider for release at the earliest stage possible—in light of statutes and other sentencing interests—offenders assessed as low risk;
6. Use the parole interview/hearing/review process as an opportunity to—among other goals--enhance offender motivation to change;
7. Fashion condition setting policy to minimize requirements on low-risk offenders, and target conditions to criminogenic needs of medium and high risk offenders;
8. Develop policy-driven, graduated responses to parole violations that incorporate considerations of risk, criminogenic need and severity, assure even-handed treatment of violators, and utilize resources wisely ;
9. Develop and strengthen case-level decisiomaking skills/capacities in these areas, and
10. Develop and strengthen agency level policy making, strategic management and performance measurement skills/capacities.

The Technical Assistance Application Process

Interested applicants should complete and submit the assistance application that can be found by clicking HERE. Applications may be submitted electronically via email to Peggy Burke, NPRC Project Director, at pburke@cepp.com. The NPRC welcomes inquiries about this technical assistance program, and encourages individuals who are interested in submitting applications to be in touch with NPRC to discuss their technical assistance needs and how these needs might be translated into a formal application. Please contact Peggy Burke with questions via email or by phone at 301-589-9383.