In today's fast-paced world, justice professionals must stay up-to-date with the latest industry developments and best practices to effectively serve their communities. As their roles evolve, maintaining a high level of knowledge and expertise becomes crucial. However, professionals in the justice field often find themselves juggling multiple responsibilities while trying to accommodate ongoing education and training. The key to successfully maintaining their professional edge lies in the consistent implementation of well-rounded and multi-faceted learning experiences throughout one's career. As we explore the significance of continuous education and training in the realm of justice, let's delve into how adopting personalized and diverse learning approaches, and even tools can empower professionals to excel in their roles while benefiting their organizations as a whole.
Tools on Devices (TOD), a robust community corrections technology platform designed by the Carey Group, solves these challenges. TOD modernizes client case management by giving staff digital access to community corrections intervention tools.
By integrating TOD, corrections agencies can reduce administrative burdens, improve client engagement, and make data-driven decisions that improve outcomes for those they serve.
The Digital Transformation of Client Supervision
For decades, community corrections relied on cumbersome paper-based processes, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. TOD redefines community corrections technology by digitizing key tools like:
- Carey Guides: A collection of 33 cognitive-behavioral handbooks that equip justice system professionals with research-based tools and worksheets to support client behavior change and skill development.
- Brief Intervention Tools (BITS): Six one-page cognitive intervention tools designed for quick, structured sessions that help clients build key skills through user-friendly activities.
- Driver Workbook: An interactive tool that helps justice system professionals and clients collaboratively identify the primary criminogenic need(s) driving harmful behavior.
Clients can access and complete these community corrections cognitive tools anytime, anywhere, from their smartphones, tablets, or computers. Real-time accessibility eliminates the hassle of lost assignments and gives clients more flexibility to engage with their rehabilitation outside of supervision appointments. Even for clients with limited tech access, TOD offers adaptability. Staff can use the community corrections technology to work alongside clients on a computer or provide printed versions of the tools when needed.
Efficiency gains do not stop there. Automated assignment distribution, due date tracking, and notifications lighten the administrative load on staff, allowing them to focus on what matters most: client engagement and behavior change.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' adoption of TOD showcases a powerful example of how community corrections technology can improve client supervision. Initially using Carey Guides to support high-risk individuals, the division faced logistical challenges like transportation, childcare, and work conflicts. Implementing TOD in February 2020 removed these barriers, allowing agents to maintain seamless contact with reentrants, even during the COVID-19 shutdown. With 22 specialized agents completing over 16,700 tools to date, TOD has improved efficiency, accessibility, and engagement. This shift highlights how digital tools can modernize supervision, streamline workflows, and ensure critical services remain resilient and adaptable.
Data-Driven Decision Making and Progress Monitoring
Data is the key to smarter, more effective supervision. TOD equips corrections professionals with robust reporting features that transform how they track client progress and allocate resources.
Usage Reports
Administrators can generate reports to analyze tool usage, staff engagement, and completion rates, clearly showing what is working and where improvements are needed.
- Tool usage reports reveal how many resources staff view, print, assign, complete, or review.
- The detailed TOD usage report provides administrators insights into how actively staff leverage the platform with their caseloads.
- Completion rate reports highlight an aggregate view of staff tool assignments and their completion rate, which helps agency administrators identify patterns and adjust strategies accordingly.
These data-driven insights streamline case management and ensure interventions are timely and effective.
The Driver Workbook and Tool Navigator
Identifying a client's primary criminogenic need through data-driven assessment is another key component of effective intervention tools. The Driver Workbook provides a clear, systematic way to achieve this. Once the client's core need is identified, the Tool Navigator streamlines the process of selecting the proper intervention tools.
In just three clicks, staff can pinpoint the specific skill a client needs to develop, access a curated list of tools tailored to that need, and assign the most appropriate tool. This efficient system removes uncertainty, ensuring interventions align with the client's needs and goals.
Targeted skill development, facilitated by the Tool Navigator, has a proven impact on behavior change. As noted in The Effectiveness of Correctional Rehabilitation: A Review of Systematic Reviews, "the responsivity principle claims that there are larger effects from treatments that provide learning and skill-building experiences aimed at changing specific problem behaviors through such techniques as practice, role-playing, modeling, feedback, verbal guidance, and reinforcement."
The Tool Navigator empowers staff to deliver interventions that foster lasting, positive change by connecting the right tools with the right needs.
Dosage Meter
The Dosage Meter is another vital tool for monitoring programming and allocating intervention hours in probation settings. By using community corrections technology to accurately track the amount and type of interventions each client receives, justice professionals ensure that individuals receive the appropriate level of support tailored to their needs.
Clients accumulate dosage hours through completed assignments and other community treatment programs, which have predetermined dosage values. This innovative concept, known as Dosage Probation, helps clients stay motivated while enabling staff to focus on high-impact interventions.
This comprehensive tracking allows staff to concentrate their time on delivering and brokering evidence-based interventions according to people's assessed likelihood of recidivism, criminogenic needs, and responsivity factors.
Using Community Corrections Technology to Shape Intervention Strategies
Completion rates and caseload statistics play a critical role in shaping effective intervention strategies and resource allocation in probation settings. Community corrections technology like TOD facilitates this process.
By analyzing completion rates of assigned programming and interventions, staff can identify which tools and programs are most effective in meeting clients' criminogenic needs and which may require adjustments or additional support. This data-driven approach ensures that resources, such as time, personnel, and program funding, are directed toward the most impactful intervention tools.
Additionally, caseload statistics (such as the number of clients, their risk levels, and the types of needs being addressed) help inform supervision strategies. Staff can prioritize higher-risk clients who require more intensive support while efficiently managing lower-risk clients with appropriate levels of intervention. This strategic allocation of resources and supervision time enables probation officers to optimize outcomes, reduce recidivism, and maintain balanced workloads.
Enhanced Staff-Client Communication and Engagement
Community corrections technology like TOD takes staff-client communication to the next level. It facilitates direct messaging between staff and clients, enabling real-time feedback, support, and guidance. Instead of waiting for the next meeting, clients receive timely encouragement and instructions that keep them engaged and motivated.
Automated Reminders and Due Date Tracking
Automated reminders and due date tracking help improve completion rates by prompting clients to stay on track with their assignments. These features do not replace human interaction. They enhance it.
Staff still review completed community corrections intervention tools and discuss outcomes with clients, ensuring personal engagement remains central to the supervision process.
Personalized Dashboards
Personalized dashboards in TOD streamline case management, allowing staff to easily monitor each client's progress. With unlimited client accounts per staff member, justice professionals can manage large caseloads efficiently while maintaining individualized attention. This flexibility ensures no client falls through the cracks.
Community Corrections Technology Implementation and Support
Adopting new community corrections technology can seem daunting, but TOD ensures a smooth transition with complimentary maintenance and customer support. Carey Group provides evidence-based training and ongoing assistance to build staff knowledge and address technical issues. Our team of organizational development experts ensures agencies maximize the platform's potential.
Integrating Carey Group's community corrections technology with existing case management practices is a seamless experience. TOD's flexible design allows justice professionals to incorporate EBP resources for community corrections without disrupting workflows. Personalized support and intuitive features mean staff can focus on what they do best: supporting client progress and behavior change.
The Future of Corrections Case Management
The future of community corrections technology lies in solutions that enhance supervision and drive data-informed decisions. Carey Group's TOD platform revolutionizes case management by offering a cost-effective, comprehensive system that enhances client engagement, bolsters monitoring and reporting, and simplifies staff workflows.
For agencies ready to modernize, TOD is the answer.
Carey Group's evidence-based online training and consulting services address the needs of the justice system and behavioral health professionals. Training is an essential tool for keeping staff, supervisors, leadership, and stakeholders up to date with emerging knowledge and expectations for improved outcomes. Working closely with Carey Group professionals, agencies are better able to offer a mixture of in-person, online, and self-directed courses on evidence-based practices, motivational interviewing, core professional competencies, case management and planning, continuous quality improvement, coaching, and the use of behavior-change tools and supervisor resources. Talk to a Carey Group consultant today to get started with our community corrections technology today!