Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/MeganSchaffer

Before the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003, it was not clear the extent to which state departments of corrections (DOCs) were addressing sexual violence in systematic ways. Little information existed about what strategies were being put into practice in prison systems across the country. PREA has changed the way DOCs are addressing prison sexual violence (PSV). The purpose of the current project was to provide a national snapshot of DOC initiatives to address PSV, as well as to identify specific practices that seemed to be, in the absence of formal evaluations, particularly promising or innovative in nature. Practices were identified related to policy development, prevention, investigation and prosecution, victim services, staff training, documenting incidents, and funding.

The Judicial Oversight Demonstration (JOD) in Milwaukee featured domestic violence courts, probation review hearings, expanded victim services, additional batterer intervention services, and enhanced probation supervision. This process evaluation documents and assesses program implementation for program planners and policy makers. The impact evaluation compares offender supervision, probationer compliance, and rearrest for domestic violence among samples of domestic violence offenders sentenced to probation before and during JOD. JOD was found to increase offender accountability at the cost of higher rates of probation revocation and subsequent incarceration.

The Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention asked the Urban Institute to undertake a comprehensive review of the state's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB), a part of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The goal of our work was to identify program accomplishments and areas for further development, and recommend specific steps that should be taken to improve program policies, operations, and services to clients. This work was conducted in coordination with the National Center for Victims of Crime's review of direct victim services across the state.

Return to list of authors