Pennsylvania DOC Evaluation Program Garners National Award

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ Program Evaluation Research System was recognized with an innovation award from the Council of State Governments.

Established in 1986, the Council’s Innovation Awards Program is designed to highlight effective, innovative programs and practices in the public sector and to promote the sharing of knowledge and experience among states.

One of eight programs throughout the United States recognized in the Council’s 2008 awards, Pennsylvania DOC’s Program Evaluation Research System was developed to evaluate agency programs, to ensure they function as intended and to assess outcomes.

“The evaluation research system is important because it is a way in which staff objectively tracks our success rate with respect to recidivism and re-entry programs,” says Jeffrey Beard, Ph.D., secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Pennsylvania’s PERS initiative is the first criminal justice program to receive an award since 2005.

PERS uses external research facilities, including Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, the University of Cincinnati, and the Vera Institute of Justice, to perform evaluative studies of departmental programs.

“The outcomes of the research do not simply get filed away or sit on a shelf,” Beard says. “We use the information to determine whether a program is effective, and if not, why not?

“We then decide whether a program should be improved or enhanced or whether it should be discontinued,” he says. “DOC policy is affected and modified, if warranted.”

PERS was employed to evaluate the department’s therapeutic communities program, a treatment initiative for inmates with substance-abuse problems.

The Temple University study documented an almost 30 percent decrease in the rate of recidivism for participating inmates. The department has since expanded the capacity of therapeutic communities program from 10 inmates to 39 inmates.

Research studies conducted as part of the collaborative program are funded through third-party grants at little or no cost to the department.

“Most importantly, this avoids bias on behalf of the academic or research institution,” Beard says. “The answers that we receive are honest, even if they are answers that the department may not wish to hear.”

A study of the Long Distance Dads program, conducted by Pennsylvania State University, found no correlation between program participation and post-release inmate outcomes. Following the report, the department phased out the program and replaced it with an alternative parenting program model.

The Council of State Governments is a non-partisan organization established to serve the executive, judicial and legislative branches of state government.

Advocating collaborative problem-solving among states, the Council seeks to provide state officials with policy responses to emerging social, economic and political trends and conditions.