A paper-and-pencil measure of offender risk/needs was derived from the Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI), an interview-based classification instrument. This resulting Self-Report Inventory (SRI) was evaluated on 100 male inmates with respect to reliability, validity, and utility. A psychometric battery including the LSI was administered. The SRI demonstrated acceptable interrater reliability and internal consistency as well as modest validity. The results suggest that offender self-reports, in combination with more traditional risks/needs assessment, can be useful for offender prediction and the identification of needs.
Faced with prison overcrowding, institutions must seek alternatives to imprisonment. An underresearched possibility is the use of haljivay houses for the placement of oflenders serving prison sentences. The LSI, an objective risk classijication instrument, was administered to inmates from three jails. Low-scoring inmates from two of the jails were flagged for placement in correctional haljivay houses, and the third jail was blind to LSI scores. The haljivay house placement rate was 51 % for the jails that used LSI scores and 16% for the jail using traditional subjective classification procedures. The results suggest that subjective offender assessments run the risk of overclassifying offenders whereas objective risk assessments yield more appropriate classifications.
Two studies were undertaken to (1) evaluate an attempt to divert inmates to correctional halfway houses, (2) cross-validate earlier research with the Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI) on a broader offender sample, and (3) explore improved methods of prediction by increased sampling of the criterion variable. In Study 1, the LSI was used to identify potential targets for diversionary intervention. Over two-thirds of the inmates assessed by the LSI as suitable candidates for correctional halfway houses were instead transferred to institutions. In Study 2, LSI scores were used to refer inmates directly to a halfway house review board for possible community placement. The results showed that inmates were transferred to the halfway houses earlier in their sentences, thus increasing the average length of stay in the houses with no increased risk to the community. Despite the use of the LSI to identify potential halfway house candidates, a large proportion of minimum-risk inmates were still transferred to institutions. The results from both studies suggest a tendency to overclassify inmates and that the use of an objective classification instrument can serve to minimize overclassification. In addition, the studies demonstrated predictive validity for the LSI with a representative sample of inmates and improved prediction with increased sampling of the criterion behavior.
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