Reference no: EM131481021

Program Evaluation

Please answer EACH question in complete sentences. Your responses should be thorough. You will use this form for every week of this quarter.

1) Please provide a brief overview of the program. (This may be 1-2 sentences.)

2) What, in your opinion, makes this program effective?

3) What, in your opinion, makes this program ineffective?

4) Name one thing you would change about the program as it currently exists.

For the following questions, pretend you are a prison warden. You have the decision to continue to offer the program at hand, or to terminate it. For the first 2 questions, assume the program continues. For the third question, assume the program is terminated. Please answer the last two questions accordingly.

5) Should this program continue, how many offenders would you attempt to target (i.e. how many offenders would ideally participate) each year?

6) Should this program continue, what hiring requirements would you implement? In other words, how will you choose staff to run the program?

7) Should you terminate the program, how else would you use the funds initially allocated for this program?

8) How would you ensure your program was working efficiently and effectively?

9) Finally, would you keep this program, or terminate it?

MSOP Reintegration Programming

The Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) is a comprehensive treatment program that provides services to individuals who have been court-ordered to receive sex offender treatment. Clients participate in a three-phase treatment program intended to prepare them for a safe and successful return to the community.

Reintegration Philosophy and Approach

Public safety is MSOP's top priority. Reintegration programming is centered on a very gradual and supported deinstitutionalization and reintroduction to life in the community. Reintegration programming offers clients opportunities to earn incremental increases in privileges, including a range of staff-escorted activities into the community, allowing them to apply what they have learned in treatment, manage their risk factors and demonstrate their ability to interact with staff and the public, safely and responsibly.

MSOP Treatment Phase III: Reintegration

All Phase III programming takes place at MSOP's St. Peter campus. Clients begin Phase III of their treatment while living inside the secure facility and may petition the court to complete Phase III in a "less restrictive environment." For those clients, MSOP operates Community Preparation Services - a residential facility that is on the grounds of the St. Peter campus but is located outside of the secure perimeter.

Phase III -- Inside the Secure Perimeter

As clients enter Phase III of their treatment, they may work to attain three successive privilege levels:
1. Staff-accompanied walks outside of the secure perimeter, to and from activities on campus grounds.
2. Staff-accompanied activities in the community, limited to the St. Peter / Mankato area.
3. Unaccompanied walks and activities on the campus grounds.

Clients who are allowed to go outside the perimeter, wear ankle bracelet monitoring devices at all times and are tracked during facility counts (at least five times in a 24-hour period). MSOP notifies local law enforcement of each off-campus activity prior to departure.

When clients have earned all three privilege levels, have demonstrated success throughout their privileged activities and have made sufficient progress on their treatment goals, they may be supported by the program to petition the court to move to Community Preparation Services.

Phase III -- Community Preparation Services (CPS)

Clients must successfully petition the Special Review Board and Supreme Court Appeal Panel to move out of the secure facility and into Community Preparation Services. The 23-bed residence includes shared kitchen, bath and living areas, and clinical and unit staff offices. Security staff are present whenever clients are in the building and the common areas are monitored via security cameras.

While in CPS, clients expand their off-campus activities - type and geographic range -- to further prepare them for a safe and successful move back into the community. Programming includes community-based treatment and maintenance, building pro- social support networks, participation in Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and other support groups, vocational training, budgeting and saving, volunteering, and making healthy lifestyle choices.

When in the community, CPS clients are always escorted by staff, wear GPS ankle bracelet monitoring devices at all times, participate in facility counts and are subject to room searches and drug testing.

As they work to build pro-social, community-based networks, CPS clients continue to be supported by their MSOP Primary Therapist, Reintegration Specialist, vocational and recreational specialists, unit staff and their peers.

When clients have achieved the goals identified for their Phase III programming and reintegration at CPS, they may be supported by the program to petition the court for a Provisional Discharge.

Provisional Discharge

To be provisionally discharged, a client must successfully petition the Special Review Board and the Supreme Court Appeal Panel. If a provisional discharge is granted by the court, the client will remain civilly committed, but is permitted to live in the community according to the terms of an individualized, court-approved provisional discharge order. MSOP is responsible for ensuring that each client complies with the terms of the client's provisional discharge order.

Residential Placement

Court approval is required for the client's initial placement in the community and for every subsequent change in residence. Housing placement, both type and location, is established by the client's provisional discharge order. The provisional discharge order takes into consideration public safety concerns and the client's reintegration needs. Preference is given to a placement that provides the greatest opportunity for the client's safe and successful reintegration, which may or may not be in the county of commitment.

The first placement for most provisionally discharged MSOP clients is into a halfway house, which is a closely monitored community-based facility. Here, clients can adjust to community living in a structured, supported environment before moving into more independent, long-term housing. The length of stay is based on client needs and progress.

Some MSOP clients who are granted provisional discharge may have disabilities or cognitive impairments that call for ongoing intensive support and supervision. For them, a direct placement into a long-term residential facility, such as a group home or other very structured housing, may be ordered.

Supervision / Case Management

During their reintegration, clients are assigned an MSOP Reintegration Specialist who acts as both a case manager and a supervising agent. MSOP's primary case management services are helping clients to access community resources and build prosocial support networks. Depending upon individual needs, clients participate in a range of community-based programming such as sex offender treatment and maintenance, healthy sexuality support groups, Alcoholics Anonymous, etc.

For at least the first thirty days of provisional discharge, Reintegration Specialists have daily face-to-face contact with the clients and escort them during all trips into the community. Ongoing supervision levels are reviewed quarterly and adjusted according to each client's progress.

Throughout a client's provisional discharge, the Reintegration Specialists, supported by MSOP's Office of Special Investigations, employ a range of supervision tools, including regular face-to-face and telephone contact, surveillance, random drug testing and room searches, curfews, and GPS monitoring. Under certain conditions, MSOP has the ability to revoke a provisionally discharged client and return the client to an MSOP facility.

Cost / Financial Responsibility

Clients who are able to work are expected to secure employment with the goal of becoming self-sufficient. If clients are unable to earn sufficient income to cover their essential living expenses, MSOP will act as a financial safety net, only as needed, to ensure that housing, utilities, food and essential services are maintained. If a client on provisional discharge is elderly, frail or disabled, MSOP will assist the client with applying for retirement, health or disability benefits.

Counties of financial responsibility continue to pay a portion of the costs to supervise and support their civilly committed clients while they are on provisional discharge.