September 7, 2011
State Auditor calls for end to prisoner rehabilitation test (COMPAS)
The state auditor is recommending that California’s corrections system shut down tests that determine what rehabilitation prisoners need, calling the tools unproven and little used.
Since 2006, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has developed and repeatedly revised the assessments, called Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS for short). It is composed of two tests. The first is given to incoming inmates, gauging levels of criminal thinking, violence, substance abuse and educational needs. The other assessment is for prisoners about to go on parole and is different from the first in that it measures housing and employment prospects on the outside.
In a report released yesterday, auditors found numerous shortcomings [PDF] in how prisons have used assessment score...
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org
