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Dosage Probation: Rethinking the Structure of Probation Sentences

This is a great introduction to a new probation strategy which links “the duration of probation supervision to the optimal amount of intervention an offender needs in order to reduce risk of reoffense”.

This monograph “provides a policy and practice framework upon which this new model of supervision can be constructed. It offers a review of evidence-based approaches to reducing recidivism in our communities, the most recent research on dosage, and its applicability to sentencing and community supervision practices. It describes the model’s promise for increasing community safety through recidivism reduction, as well as achieving fiscal savings by reducing periods of supervision. Finally, the monograph offers a summary of the work of Milwaukee County’s criminal justice stakeholders as they design and conduct the nation’s first dosage probation experiment.”

Sections of this publication include:

  • introduction to the dosage model of probation;
  • the principles of effective intervention-who we target for intervention matters (the risk principle),
  • what we target for intervention matters (the need principle),
  • how we intervene and interact matters (the responsivity principle),
  • how well interventions are implemented matters,
  • fidelity and integrity of corrections professionals’ interventions,
  • and the relationship between early termination of supervision and recidivism;
  • adding dosage to the equation-how much dosage is delivered matters, and further study needed;
  • implications-the dosage probation model of supervision;
  • and dosage probation in Milwaukee County.