APPA National Standards for Community Supervision
cjinstitute.org/news-article/a-historic-moment-cji-presents-appas-first-national-standards-for-community-supervision/
appa-net.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=National-Standards
appa-net.org/eweb/docs/APPA/National_Standards_for_Community_Supervision_OUTLINE.pdf
appa-net.org/eweb/docs/APPA/National_Standards_Community_Supervision_FINAL.pdf
One framework for providing incentives in a community supervision context is contingency management, which focuses on reducing behaviors such as drug use by allowing individuals to earn rewards and incentives through positive behavior. Building on the finding that behavior responses should be swift, certain, and proportional, contingency management holds that individuals should have a clear understanding of how incentives can be earned, and that when they have completed the requirements to gain an incentive, they should receive that incentive in a timely manner in response to the positive behavior. When using contingency management, CSOs identify desired behaviors, assign values to the observed behaviors and deliver rewards when an individual achieves the desired behavior or earns a certain number of points.
Standard 10.1 Agencies should have written policies, procedures, and established practices that govern the responses to behavior and that ensure the principles of swiftness, certainty, fairness, transparency, and consistency are observed for all responses to behavior. Commentary: To gain individuals’ trust and compliance with supervision rules, CSOs should incorporate procedural justice principles and techniques throughout the individual’s time on supervision, and not just as a response to noncompliance. Agencies can encourage their CSOs to adopt this approach by embedding the principles of procedural justice in official policies, procedures, and practices, thereby setting formal expectations for CSOs and providing resources to assist them. For more discussion of this topic, see Standard 7.2 and the Introduction to Standard 8. Agency policies, procedures, and practices should incorporate the following principles of procedural justice, including:
▪ Fairness: Individuals on supervision should be treated with respect and dignity and approached as valuable human beings.
▪ Voice: Individuals on supervision should have a voice in the decision-making process about their outcome and should be given an opportunity to share their side of the situation under review.
▪ Transparency: The disciplinary process should have consistent and clear options and responses, whether punitive or behavioral, that are accessible to the individual at the beginning of supervision.
▪ Impartiality: The disciplinary process should have a structured framework designed to minimize implicit bias on the part of the decision maker(s) so that behavioral responses are objective and neutral.
Research indicates that the application of procedural justice practices within the supervision context is associated with a greater “felt obligation to obey the law” and “lower odds of recidivism.” One way to embed procedural justice principles into behavior responses is for the agency to provide an incentive and sanctions grid or matrix, including specific behaviors and potential incentive or sanction responses to these behaviors. This tool has the potential to increase consistent behavior responses and serve as a resource officers can use to promote transparency and impartiality.
