With limited time and numerous caseloads, having tools that help you manage the caseload while incorporating evidence-based practices is integral to promoting positive change.

In 2021, the Pennsylvania Partnership for Criminal Justice Improvement’s Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) Committee Infrastructure Workgroup completed the first of three tasks intended to establish statewide workload/caseload guidelines:

● Collect examples of EBP workload/caseload experiences from other jurisdictions to serve as the basis for developing Pennsylvania-specific guidelines.

To complete this task, a questionnaire with eight questions was completed by 12 probation/parole departments, in ten states, that had restructured their caseloads to improve outcomes. Details about this questionnaire, including the questions asked, participating departments and states, as well as the process applied and themes identified, are available in the Caseload Guidelines Questionnaire Summary.

Take Time to Reduce Caseloads and Recidivism

With limited hours within a regular full-time work week, and a variety of priorities to meet in addition to managing caseloads, time quickly becomes one of our most limited resources. Several factors—urban v. rural, varying levels of risk to manage, and mixed duties such as supervision and writing court reports or conducting intakes—directly impact the number of hours needed to complete various caseload tasks, all the while conducting meaningful supervision.

One of the most valuable risk-reduction takeaways gleaned from surveying other departments about best-practice for caseloads is:

● officers must have adequate time in their appointment(s) to conduct case planning and to teach skills related to criminogenic needs that lead to long-term positive behavioral change

Adequate time combined with reduced caseloads allows officers to better and more intentionally manage individuals assessed as medium and high-risk, with the most important end goal always in mind: positive change for everyone in Pennsylvania.

EBP briefs on caseload realignment are available at ccappoap.com/ebpstakeholderresources 

Lessons Learned from the Caseload Guidelines Questionnaire

While there were policy and practice differences among the 12 departments surveyed, a few common themes emerged as a result of restructuring (and reducing) caseloads:

● Separation by risk level improves recidivism reduction rates among people who are medium and high risk

● Expanding low-risk caseload practices (e.g., non-reporting, kiosks, phone reporting) benefitted officers and those on their caseloads

● Specialized caseloads, with the most common being sex offender and domestic violence, improved outcomes

● Active monitoring of caseloads and adjusting/“rebalancing” as needed helped officers and those on their caseloads

● Discontinuing and/or changing duties frees up time while increasing focus on risk-reduction activities

Additional lessons learned, as well as advice to help you restructure your caseloads, are detailed in the Caseload Guidelines Questionnaire Summary.  Research-informed practices that promote law-abiding behavior, while focusing on risk, need, and responsivity, are outlined in our EBP Brief: Risk-Need-Responsivity Principles. Evidence-based practices that support officers as they work with people to reduce their risk of recidivism are presented in our EBP Brief: Changing Probation and Parole Practices.

Next month: National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is April 23–29, 2023. The April newsletter will feature resources focused on working with people who have been victims of crime.

Positive change is possible for everyone in Pennsylvania. We look forward to continuing to enhance your EBP knowledge and invite you to submit education/resource requests to askppcji@gmail.com. 

April Focus: Working with victims of crime