NCJ Number
176457
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 62 Issue: 2 Dated: December 1998 Pages: 36-45
Date Published
1998
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article presents a continuum of community-based sanctions for probation officers to use whenever offenders violate their special drug aftercare condition and discusses the violations that would result in the use of such sanctions.
Abstract
Operation Spotlight aimed to overcome the combinations of factors and practices that separate the work of police and corrections agencies and that do not serve community safety well. It rests on what the research literature reveals to be the essential components of effectiveness: training, real-time interventions, comprehensive drug and mental health treatment, the active use of prosocial factors such as family and friends, a reliance on specific interventions, structured weekly team meetings, teamwork, and the use of graduated sanctions where possible. NCIA focused extensive formal training, technical assistance, and an information system on the Operation Spotlight program. Probation and police officers voluntarily commit to work on a team for at least 1 year. They attend 2 training sessions lasting 1 week each. They then meet weekly at a regular time and place in the designated community for approximately 3 hours, using a structured meeting format developed by NCIA. At the meeting they review each offender case and strategies for effective intervention, gain new skills for intervening effectively with at-risk offenders, gain knowledge of existing community resources, and develop techniques for gaining citizen support. Operation Spotlight benefits police agencies, probation agencies, citizens, and offenders. The program is being used in Maryland as part of its HotSpots communities initiative initiated in March 1997. 28 references