Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The BOC's Research Team frequently responds to questions from constituents and other interested persons about the various information gathering activities undertaken by the Board.  FAQs related to five information-gathering activities regularly conducted by the BOC's Research Team are outlined below, along with brief responses and available links to more information.

Jail Profile And Juvenile Detention Surveys

Questions:

• How many people are housed in local adult and juvenile detention facilities in California?
• What are the characteristics of those detained in terms of many variables such as: age, gender, offense, sentenced versus non-sentenced, length of stay, medical and mental health?
• What do these data tell us about the demands upon, and needs of, local detention systems?

Answer:

The BOC's Jail Profile and Juvenile Detention Facility Surveys gather a wide range of data (average daily population, average length of stay, the number of early releases, and many other variables) from every corrections and probation jurisdiction in the State. Some of the variables are assessed monthly and others quarterly. The data are summarized into quarterly and yearly reports that are presented to local agencies, the Board, the Legislature and other interested parties.

These data allow us to discern and track important trends in the detention population and  functioning of the local detention system. For example, we now know that 15,000 - 20,000 individuals either avoid incarceration or are released early due to insufficient jail space.

The Research Team consulted on the design of these two surveys, developed the computational procedures that analyze the data, created the reporting formats, and make presentations to the Board describing the survey results. The Team also tracks trends in the data and alerts the Board when the data suggest that new issues are emerging.

For more information, please click on one of the following: Jail Profile Survey or Juvenile Detention Survey.

Employee Selection and Training Research

Questions:

• What should be the minimum qualifications for corrections and probation positions?
• What should an entry-level corrections or probation employee know about performing the job before being put into their first job assignment?

Answer:

The BOC is responsible for setting employment and training standards for corrections and probation personnel. The setting of such standards is a very complex undertaking calling for rigorous research that includes the following steps:

• doing a thorough job analysis to identify the tasks performed by job incumbents;
• identifying the criteria of good job performance (i.e., the behaviors that serve to distinguish good performers from poor performers);
• developing reliable and valid methods of measuring job performance;
• identifying the skills, knowledge, abilities and other personal characteristics that are required for good job performance;
• developing employee selection instruments (e.g., paper-and-pencil tests, physical and behavioral performance tests) and training curricula (e.g., the "basic courses" that new employees must pass in order to enter into the occupation) that identify people who can do the job and prepare them to perform the job;
• establishing through "validation research" that the employee selection instruments and training curricula are job-related, objective and fair, and effective techniques for selecting the right employees and preparing them to do the job;
• documenting the process by which the employee selection techniques and training curricula were developed; and
• implementing the new employee selection and training programs.

Since the early 1980's, the Research Team has conducted or monitored the employee selection and training research that has resulted in a full range of standards for the jobs of adult corrections officer, juvenile corrections officer and probation officer.

For more information, go to the Standards and Training page on the BOC's Web site.

Training Presentation Evaluation

Questions:

• How are STC Certified courses evaluated?
• What do students say about the STC-certified presentations?

Answer:

Each year, training that is certified by the BOC is presented to thousands of corrections and probation personnel to improve their job-related competence. Each of the trainees fills out a Course Evaluation Form. These forms (about 500,000 per year) are sent to the BOC, scanned into the computer and then analyzed by software developed by the Research Team.  Exemplary courses are identified so that the content and methods can be repeated in other training. Training problems are quickly identified and corrected. The evaluation data are also monitored as a method of tracking the functioning of the BOC course certification system.

Demonstration Grant Program Evaluation

Questions:

• What are the characteristics of programs that work to reduce the incidence of crime and arrests by juveniles?
• What are the characteristics of programs that work to reduce the incidence of crime and arrests by mentally ill offenders?
• What are the desired characteristics of Board-sponsored research to answer the above question?

Answer:

The BOC has awarded approximately $160 million dollars in state-funded grants to counties to implement and evaluate programs designed to: 1)  reduce juvenile crime (Juvenile Challenge Grant and Repeat Offender Prevention Programs), and 2) reduce crime, jail crowding and criminal justice costs associated with mentally ill offenders (Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Grant Program).

The purpose of these grants is to identify what kinds of programs work.  Determining "what works" requires well-designed research. The grants were awarded, on a competitive basis, to counties that proposed to do the following:

• develop a research design that would be an appropriate test of their program interventions;
• assess the effectiveness of the new program using appropriate outcome measures:
• compare the effectiveness of the new program against the results from some other program (e.g., a traditional program that had been used for several years prior to the grant);
• make sure that the individuals in the two programs were comparable in terms of important variables such as age and gender;
• test the hypothesis that the new program is significantly more effective than the old program, using the appropriate statistic; and
• write a thorough research report documenting the research findings.

The Research Team is responsible for working with each of the grantee counties to develop and conduct an effective research model. In addition, each grantee must gather a common set of data elements regarding their program participants. Whenever possible (e.g., programs of similar design), the Research Team will combine the data from counties to create a larger data set in order to increase the statistical power and make it possible to generalize the results over a wider geographical area.

For more information, please click on one of the following: Challenge Grant Program, Repeat Offender Prevention Program, or Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Grant Program.

Field Attitude Survey

Questions:

• What does the field think about the Board and its programs?
• What issues does the field have with the Board and its programs?
• What programs, policies, products, procedures need to be reviewed?

Answer:

The BOC periodically prepares a field attitude survey that is sent to all chief executives of corrections and probation departments in California.  The Research Team is responsible for the design of the attitude survey in terms of the wording of the statements, the choice of the attitude measurement scale, and the instructions. The Research Team consults with each BOC Division and the Executive Director to make sure that all important components of the BOC program and all important, emerging issues are addressed.

When the completed surveys are returned to the BOC, the Research Team analyzes the data, computes the results, documents the findings and reports the conclusions to the Board.  The most recent survey was conducted in 1998. The last results were reported in a document entitled Field Survey 1998  that is available from the BOC. These results show strong positive attitudes in the field for the BOC, its staff and programs.

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