Resources tagged 'Compas'
Audit: Effectiveness of COMPAS
As requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the California State Auditor presents this audit report concerning the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations’ (Corrections) use of the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS), which is a software tool that helps to identify the characteristics that cause offenders to commit crimes so they can participate in rehabilitative programs and thereby lessen their likelihood of reoffending. Our report concludes that the benefits from Corrections’ use of COMPAS are, at best, uncertain.
Specifically, Corrections’ use of COMPAS in its reception centers—facilities where inmates entering the correctional system are evaluated and assigned to a prison—does not meaningfully affect its decision‑making concerning prison assignments, and by extension, the rehabilitative programs inmates might access at those facilities. Our discussions with staff from eight of Corrections’ 12 reception centers revealed that other non-COMPAS factors, such as an inmate’s security level and limited bed space at receiving prisons, play more prominent roles in determining where inmates can be housed...
Read the Full Audit (.pdf format)