Over the last several years, the federal probation and pretrial services system has shifted its focus from being primarily concerned with monitoring and ensuring the compliance of individuals on pretrial release, probation, or post-incarceration supervised release, to primarily seeking to reduce recidivism by using evidence-based practices in supervision. The probation and pretrial services system helps individuals under community supervision change their behavior to reduce their risk of recidivism through a framework of principles known as the Risk-Need-Responsivity model, or RNR. In 2013, the Probation and Pretrial Services Office of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts convened a post-conviction supervision working group to help update national policy to align with the RNR framework and evidence-based practices.

This episode of Off Paper features a discussion of the new post-conviction supervision policy and its implications for federal probation departments, their leaders, their officers, their clients, and their communities. Guests include Chief U.S. Probation Officer and Chiefs Advisory Group chair Jonathan Hurtig (New Hampshire), Chief U.S. Probation Officer and Post-Conviction Supervision Working Group chair John Bentley (South Dakota), Deputy Chief Probation Officer and Working Group member Brad Whitley (M.D.N.C.), and Supervisory Probation Administrator Scott VanBenschoten (Administrative Office).

For more information about this podcast, please contact Mark Sherman, Assistant Division Director, Probation and Pretrial Services Education, at 202-502-4119 or msherman@fjc.gov.

This recording may be copied and reused within the judiciary. It may also be used or distributed outside the federal judicial branch without the Center’s permission.