DES MOINES – The Iowa Board of Corrections will be meeting this week in Des Moines for their monthly meeting.
At the meeting, the board will be taking an “Evidence Based Practices Quiz” with true and false answers.
“It’s kind of a fun test of their acumen on evidence-based decision making,” said Iowa Corrections Department spokeswoman Lettie Prell. “It’ an entertaining way to engage the board.”
Prell said that at Friday’s meeting, the correct answers will be provided to the board at the end of the quiz and then discussed.
Take a look at the quiz below and see what your answers / opinions on each item are:
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Self-Assessment: True or False Questions
1. The seriousness of the committing offense is more important than the offender’s personal characteristics in predicting the likelihood of further crimes.
2. Jails and prisons are effective in changing offender behavior if the conditions are severe enough that offenders don’t want to return.
3. The manner in which parole board proceedings are conducted is not a significant factor affecting offender recidivism.
4. Parole Officers will be more effective if they have lower caseloads.
5. Programs like “Scared Straight” and Boot Camp are particularly effective for youthful offenders.
6. An offender doesn’t need to be “motivated” in order for treatment to be successful.
7. The most cost effective strategy is to deliver treatment to the extremely high risk offender.
8. It is better to invest in treatment of low risk offenders than high-risk offenders because their criminal tendencies are less hardened.
9. Most offenders don’t handle stress well, so anxiety and stress reduction programs like yoga and meditation are helpful in reducing recidivism.
10. Intensive parole supervision tends to reduce recidivism better than regular parole supervision.
After reading this I kind of wonder if this is a joke to the board of corrections. With phrases like, it’s kind of a fun test or an entertaining way to engage the board, sounds to me like it’s all fun and games. These people control other peoples lives, and in some cases for a long time. I guess maybe it’s job security for them to play games instead of rehabilitate. Just think, if they did rehabilitate, some of them might not have a job. Lets not forget about all the tax payer money that could be saved through rehabilitation and empty prisons.
Apparently the judges around here feel probation is the cure for everyone and everything.
Some answers seem to be obvious, but then you wonder if they are trick questions when you overthink them. I can just see some of these yahoos agreeing to do yoga and meditation. You could just see the wheels turning in their brains during “meditation” and they aren’t thinking “OM”.