Deck 12: Program Evaluation, Evidence-Based Practices, and Future Trends in Corrections

Question 1

General goals must be translated into ______ outcomes.

A) noticeable
B) localized
C) nationalized
D) measurable

Answer 1

measurable

Question 2

______ is aimed at identifying both complications and accomplishments during the early phases of program development to provide helpful feedback to clinical and administrative staff.

A) Implementation evaluation
B) Research evaluation
C) Compliance analysis
D) Process evaluation

Answer 2

Implementation evaluation

Question 3

What type of evaluations involve informal and formal interviews with correctional staff administrators, staff, and offenders to ascertain their degree of satisfaction with the program and their perceptions of any problems?

A) implementation
B) process
C) outcome
D) compliance

Answer 3

implementation

Question 4

______ traditionally refers to assessment of the effects of the program on clients while they are in the program, making it possible to assess the institution's intermediary goals.

A) Implementation evaluation
B) Process evaluation
C) Outcome evaluation
D) Process analysis

Question 5

Process evaluation involves all of the following except ______.

A) type and amount of services provided
B) number of offenders who are screened, admitted, reviewed, and discharged
C) percentage of offenders who are convicted sexual offenders
D) percentage of offenders who favorably complete treatment each month

Question 6

Which of the following is not an area of potential client change that should be assessed during a process evaluation?

A) cognitive understanding
B) physical plant
C) emotional functioning
D) education and vocational training progress

Question 7

Which potential client change that should be addressed during a process evaluation focuses on anxiety and depression of an offender?

A) cognitive understanding
B) attitudes/values
C) behavior
D) emotional functioning

Question 8

Which potential client change that should be addressed during a process evaluation focuses on rule infractions and urinalysis results of an offender?

A) behavior
B) education and vocational training progress
C) attitudes and values
D) cognitive understanding

Question 9

In a process evaluation, which program impact on the host prison facility area that should be examined involves reviewing the number of rule infractions, the cost of hearings, court litigation expenses, and inmate cooperation in general prison operations?

A) offender behavior
B) offender mental health
C) staff functioning
D) physical plant

Question 10

In a process evaluation, which program impact on the host prison facility area that should be examined involves examining the physical properties of the program?

A) offender mental health
B) physical plant
C) staff functioning
D) offender behavior

Question 11

______ evaluation involves quantitative research aimed at assessing the impact of the program on long-term treatment outcomes.

A) Implementation
B) Process.
C) Outcome
D) Process

Question 12

What evaluations involve complex statistical analyses and sophisticated report preparation?

A) process
B) outcome
C) implementation
D) none of these

Question 13

Follow-up data (e.g., drug relapse, recidivism, employment status) are at the heart of which kind of evaluation?

A) transparent
B) process
C) implementation
D) outcome

Question 14

Because ______ research usually involves a relatively large investment of time and money as well as the cooperation of a variety of people and agencies, it must be carefully planned.

A) process
B) implementation
C) transparency
D) outcome

Question 15

Which is not a commonly used process measure for reentry program performance?

A) rates of drug relapse
B) housing assistance received
C) health services received
D) family intervention and parent training received

Question 16

The key to an effective and ethical evaluation is ______.

A) research analysis
B) evaluative transparency
C) political transparency
D) process transparency

Question 17

Programs of quality are accountable to the public, which is, in part, an element of ______.

A) analysis
B) research
C) transparency
D) evaluation

Question 18

In regard to ______, agencies should also make a point to evaluate the support that they provide to their staff.

A) staffing quality
B) program quality
C) offender quality
D) agency quality

Question 19

The Bureau of Justice Assistance Center for Program Evaluation (2007) elaborates the need for evaluations to be constructed in a manner that is useful to the ______ of the evaluation.

A) evidence-based practices
B) simplicities
C) stakeholders
D) transparencies

Question 20

How can evaluation information be a powerful tool for a variety of stakeholders?

A) Program managers can use the information to make changes in their programs that will enhance their effectiveness.
B) Decision makers can ensure that they are funding effective programs.
C) Other authorities can ensure that programs are developed as intended and have sufficient resources to implement activities and meet their goals and objectives.
D) all of these

Question 21

Learning organizations have the inherent ability to adapt and change, improving performance through continual revision of ______.

A) goals
B) objectives
C) policies
D) all of these

Question 22

The ideal community corrections agency is a(n) ______.

A) transparent agency
B) learning organization
C) modified environment
D) evaluated agency

Question 23

What kind of community corrections agency is one that can adjust to outside community needs and challenges as well as internal personnel and resource challenges?

A) evaluative organization
B) transparent organization
C) political agency
D) learning organization

Question 24

In its ideal state, what is an essential component in the process of program planning, goal setting, and modification and improvement?

A) transparency
B) learning
C) outcome
D) evaluation

Question 25

What not only help to crystalize the agency's philosophical orientation on the supervision process but also provide for more measurable constructs that lend themselves to effective evaluation?

A) strong mission statements
B) clearly articulated goals
C) transparent procedures
D) outcome measures

Question 26

The assessment of the ______ typically serves as the baseline measure when examining evaluation processes.

A) offender
B) agency
C) staff
D) program

Question 27

What do services or functions carried out by a program (i.e., what the program does) refer to?

A) policy
B) activities
C) goals
D) evaluation

Question 28

______ programs that screen clients at intake, complete placement assessments, and provide counseling to clients are fulfilling an activity.

A) Renewal
B) Treatment
C) Objective
D) Goal

Question 29

What is a desired state of affairs that outlines the ultimate purpose of a program?

A) goal
B) activity
C) policy
D) evaluation

Question 30

What are specific results or effects of a program's activities that must be achieved in pursuing the program's ultimate goals called?

A) policies
B) outcome
C) reviews
D) objectives

Question 31

What is the process whereby assessment data and evaluation data are compared to determine the effectiveness of programs and to find areas where improvement of agency services is required?

A) process-evaluation cycle
B) implementation-assessment cycle
C) assessment-evaluation cycle
D) stakeholder-investor cycle

Question 32

Agencies that successfully implement the assessment-evaluation cycle tend to use ______ resources more effectively and are also less prone to placing the community at risk of future criminal activity.

A) public
B) private
C) correctional
D) legal

Question 33

What is a significant trend throughout all human services that emphasizes outcomes?

A) transparent learning cycle
B) assessment-evaluation cycle
C) learning-evaluation practices
D) evidence-based practice

Question 34

Which of the following is true regarding evidence-based practices?

A) It is appropriate for scientific exploration within any human service discipline.
B) It has not become a significant trend in corrections.
C) Many outcomes are desired over others.
D) The desired outcome is defined according to moral or value-oriented standards.

Question 35

All but the ______ levels of the Research Support Pyramid for Evidence-Based Practice Implementation require that a preponderance of the evidence supports a program's effectiveness.

A) top two
B) top three
C) bottom three
D) bottom two

Question 36

What level of the Research Support Pyramid for Evidence-Based Practice Implementation is reserved for those programs that have been subjected to research but the findings were negative and the programs were determined to be not effective?

A) silver
B) iron
C) bronze
D) dirt

Question 37

Which of the following is not one of the trends in corrections the text has been addressing that are likely to continue in the future?

A) the need for continued training of correctional staff
B) an increased emphasis on the reentry process for offenders
C) the need to incarcerate more individuals of a nonviolent nature
D) the tendency for technology to have more impact on correctional agency operations

Question 38

The use of ______ operations in corrections carries some degree of controversy. This is largely because some people have a moralistic opposition to the idea that money might be made off the misery of others.

A) public
B) privatized
C) nationalized
D) globalized

Question 39

______ correctional systems have had more legal problems related to the constitutionality of their operations than private systems.

A) State
B) Local
C) City
D) County

Question 40

What occurs when social and behavioral researchers' interactions with and observation of subjects being studied affect the subjects' behavior?

A) butterfly effect
B) Hawthorne effect
C) Hawkins effect
D) Martinson effect

Question 41

What refers to the effects that the media have upon the public perception of prison or community supervision programs?

A) media effects
B) rumor control
C) prison social media
D) prison outlets

Question 42

What consists of information regarding visitation, sending necessities to loved ones who are locked up, or other concerns and can include different forms of clandestine communications such as coded messages and/or communications between gang members outside the prison regarding issues that occur, or will occur, within the prison?

A) prison social media
B) prison outlets
C) rumor control
D) media effects

Question 43

Research and evaluation is a critical dimension of correctional programs.

Question 44

Formula evaluation refers to assessment of the effects of the program on clients while they are in the program.

Question 45

Process analysis traditionally refers to assessment of the effects of the program on clients while they are in the program, making it possible to assess the institution's intermediary goals.

Question 46

Outcome evaluations involve quantitative research aimed at assessing the impact of the program on long-term treatment outcomes.

Question 47

Correctional objectives involve that an agency's evaluative process allows for an outside person (whether an auditor, an evaluator, or the public at large) to have full view of the agency's operations, budgeting, policies, procedures, and outcomes.

Question 48

Stakeholders in corrections evaluations include the agency personnel, the community in which the agency is located, and even the offender population that is being supervised.

Question 49

Agencies that are adept at implementing evaluative information and recommendations are sometimes referred to as employment services.

Question 50

Retribution organizations have the inherent ability to adapt and change, improving performance through continual revision of goals, objectives, policies, and procedures.

Question 51

Articulated goals not only help crystallize the agency's philosophical orientation on the supervision process but also provide for more measurable constructs that lend themselves to effective evaluation.

Question 52

Objectives are specific results or effects of a program's activities that must be achieved in pursuing the program's ultimate goals.

Question 53

The process in which an agency is constantly assessing and evaluating itself is known as the assessment-evaluation cycle.

Question 54

Evidence-based practice (EBP) implies that (1) one outcome is desired over others, (2) the outcome is measurable, and (3) the outcome is defined according to practical realities (e.g., public safety) rather than immeasurable moral or value-oriented standards.

Question 55

Evaluation research, which shows that a program has inconclusive support regarding its efficacy, falls in the iron level of the Research Support Pyramid for Evidence-Based Practice Implementation.

Question 56

The use of globalized operations in corrections carries some degree of controversy. This is largely because some people have a moralistic opposition to the idea that money might be made off the misery of others.

Question 57

Private companies must ensure that they stay within budget and operate in an efficient and productive manner; to do otherwise results in a loss of revenue.

Question 58

The continued diversity of inmates, along with other challenges they present, means that offender populations are likely to become much less complicated to manage in the future.

Question 59

What is implementation evaluation aimed at?

Question 60

What is an outcome evaluation?

Question 61

What are commonly used process measures of reentry program performance?

Question 62

How is technology being used in the world of corrections?

Question 63

Discuss several issues associated with privatization of corrections.

Question 64

What do the implementation of standards and accreditation mean for the future professionalization of corrections?