From Policy to Practice: A Process Evaluation of the New York City Department of Probation's Containment Model for Sex Offender Supervision

The Capstone team conducted a process evaluation of the New York City Department of Probation's (Department) containment model for supervising sex offenders. The Department commenced this new model in October 2008, but had not examined the extent to which it had been implemented as intended. The purpose of the evaluation was to take stock of current practices and assess ways for enhancing the supervision model. The Capstone team employed a series of quantitative and qualitative analyses to document and describe current practices, identify successes and challenges in implementing the containment model, identify the extent to which policies have been implemented consistently across boroughs, and assess how different partners and agencies have worked together to provide services and supervision to probationers. Based on the findings, the Capstone team developed a series of recommendations on how to improve program operations going forward, using the Department's policies and national best practices as a guiding framework.