HD60 - Evaluation of the Richmond Day Reporting Center (RDRC)
Executive Summary: In 1994, the General Assembly authorized funding for the development of a day reporting center in the City of Richmond 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, a day reporting center program would reserve costly correctional bed space for more serious violent offenders. It would also provide the drug services, education, and other assistance necessary to prevent recidivism in offenders. The Richmond Day Reporting Center (RDRC) began accepting offenders on October 1, 1994. The RDRC program was originally conceptualized to target the population of probationers and parolees in the City of Richmond 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 City of Richmond Circuit Court judges and inmates released directly to the program by the Virginia Parole Board. The geographic scope of the program was also expanded to include offenders under the jurisdiction of Hanover, Henrico, and Chesterfield counties. The RDRC is operated by six Department of Corrections (DOC) staff, who supervise and monitor offenders, and three services personnel, who provide drug treatment, educational assistance, 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 the RDRC program, the types of services received by offenders, and the degree of participant success with program requirements. A follow-up study was conducted to examine the outcomes for RDRC participants after they exited the program. The evaluation results suggest that the RDRC program is achieving its goals of providing individualized treatment/rehabilitative services to many of its clients and ensuring public safety. However, the evaluators have developed several recommendations that may be useful in improving program effectiveness: • Attempt to improve the program success rate by: (1) improving client selection, and (2) continuing individualized treatment, yet improving these efforts when possible. • Impose sanctions as quickly as possible for negative behaviors. • Continue to expand the drug treatment services available at the RDRC. If additional funds are not available for expanding the drug treatment program, the RDRC should allocate its treatment resources in the following order of priority: drug treatment; employment services; educational services. • As reduction of prison costs is a primary goal of the RDRC, the RDRC should attempt to: (1) accept only clients who are prison bed diversions, and (2) reduce the number of days offenders are supervised by the RDRC while maintaining current treatment/program requirements. • Review programming for offenders at-risk of violent behavior. • Attempt to qualitatively determine predictors of absconding. |
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