Pracademically Speaking

In the second part of this month’s series, we talk with Jason Stauffer, the PA DOC’s Supervisor of Assessment and Classification Services.  Jason talks about his background in corrections and assessment, how the PA DOC uses risk and needs assessment, and specifically how the PA DOC uses their new Strong-R assessment instrument.

In the first part of this month’s series, we talk with the team at Vant4ge, a company that produces a correctional risk/needs assessment tool called the Strong-R.  We discuss what risk/needs assessment is, and also discuss its importance in the corrections field.  The Vant4ge team talks about what new developments are happening in the risk/needs assessment industry.

In this follow-up episode, we continue our discussion on the concept of “desistance” with a very special guest: Dr. Laurel Harry, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Sec. Harry talks about her career and about her interest in implementing desistance as a practical framework in the field of corrections.

In this episode we discuss the concept of “desistance,” an idea which has been around for a while in academic criminology but is only now beginning to catch on among corrections practitioners and policy-makers.  Dr. Bucklen describes what desistance is, discusses how to define and measure it, and explains its practical use as a complimentary measure to recidivism by correctional agencies. 

Resources referenced in this episode:

In this episode we talk with two key leaders at the PA DOC, Deputy Secretary Chris Oppman and Deputy Secretary Lucas Malishchak, about how the areas under their purview within the department use research and statistics to make better decisions.

In this first episode of the re-launched podcast we talk with Dr. Bret Bucklen (PA DOC Director of Planning, Research, and Statistics) about what his office does and what value it brings to the department.  We explore the importance of research and evaluation in corrections.

In this episode, a team of Industrial Engineers from Lehigh