This report documents the development and implementation process of the Community Supervision Mapping System.
The Community Supervision Mapping System (CSMS) is an online tool for use by criminal justice professionals that enables them to map the geographic location of formerly incarcerated offenders and others on probation. CSMS enables community supervision officers, law enforcement agents, and social service providers to supervise and support prisoners who are returning to their communities. The tool was developed and piloted in the State of Rhode Island in 2008, and designed to be a user-friendly, low-cost software package that could be easily replicated across other jurisdictions. The implementation of the software included an outcome evaluation, the results of which are described in this report. The evaluation found that users of CSMS generally believed that benefits of the tool outweighed the potential negative factors, and that the more frequent users perceived more direct and more advantageous impacts than infrequent users. In addition, more frequent users were more likely to recommend use of the tool to their colleagues. The report has seven primary sections: 1) Introduction; 2) Concept and Theoretical Framework; 3) CSMS Project Background; 4) CSMS Project Development and Design; 5) Implementation; 6) Evaluation Findings; and 7) Looking Forward. Tables, figures, references, Web resources, and appendixes