HD33 - Final Report of the Department of Criminal Justice Services on Evaluation of the Fairfax Day Reporting Center (FDRC)

  • Published: 1996
  • Author: Department of Criminal Justice Services
  • Enabling Authority: Appropriation Act - Item 460 (Regular Session, 1993)

Executive Summary:
Chapter 994, Item 460 of the 1993 Acts of Assembly designated funding for the development and implementation of a pilot day reporting center in Fairfax County. Item 460 also directed the Department of Criminal Justice Services to evaluate the program and provide a final evaluation report to the 1996 General Assembly. Interim reports were submitted to the 1994 and 1995 sessions of the General Assembly. This is the final report as directed for the 1996 General Assembly.

In 1993, the General Assembly authorized funding for the development of a day reporting program in the County of Fairfax for probation and parole technical violators. The purpose of this program was to provide non-residential punishment which assured high standards of public safety. Ideally, the day reporting center program would reserve costly correctional bed space for more serious violent offenders. It would also provide the education, drug services, and other assistance necessary to prevent recidivism in offenders.

The Fairfax County Day Reporting Center (FDRC) began accepting offenders on August 2, 1993. The FDRC program was originally conceptualized to target the population of probationers and parolees in Fairfax County who technically violate the conditions of community supervision. The scope of the program was ultimately expanded to include offenders directly sentenced to the program by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judges and inmates released directly to the program by the Virginia Parole Board.

The FORC is operated by six Department of Corrections (DOC) staff, who supervise and monitor offenders, and four services personnel, who provide educational, drug treatment, and life skills assistance. The program incorporates three levels of treatment and supervision, with each level providing less stringent supervision requirements than the preceding one. In addition, offenders are sanctioned to discourage negative behaviors.

The evaluation was designed to provide information on the offenders participating in FDRC programs, the types of services received by offenders, and the degree of participant success with program requirements. A follow-up study was conducted to examine outcomes for FDRC participants after they exited the program. Data collection instruments were constructed by the evaluators and completed by FDRC staff.

The evaluation results suggest that the FDRC program is achieving its goals of ensuring public safety and providing individualized treatment/rehabilitative services to many of its clients. However, the evaluators have developed several recommendations that may be useful in improving program effectiveness:

• develop empirically-based criteria for program admission to identify offenders who would most benefit from the program;

• ensure that appropriate sanctions are applied to unsuccessful participants;

• expand resources for substance abuse services;

• increase emphasis on employment and educational needs of the offenders;

• to address potential benefits received by unsuccessful participants, conduct additional research to examine outcomes for offenders who complete the program, are terminated from the program, and do not participate in the program.