Skip to content

< Return to the ACE! website

ace logo - w schar 9

Practice Guidelines for Community Supervision

Search Appropriateness Statement Package

Popular Queries: rolesupervisionclient outcomeskioskproject

Introduction

  • Introduction
  • How to Use This Guide to Benefit Your Agency
  • Section I: How to Use the Appropriateness Statements to Develop Practice Guidelines
  • Appropriateness Statement Outline
  • Section II: Implementing Practice Guidelines
  • Section III: Building the Working Alliance
  • Section IV: Appropriateness Statements

Contacts

  • Contacts
  • Contacts: Implementation Considerations
  • Types of Contacts
  • Frequency of Contact

Compliance-Based Practices

  • Compliance-Based Practices
  • Overall Compliance-Based Practice Implementation Considerations
  • Collateral and Employer Contacts
  • Drug Testing
  • Electronic Monitoring
  • Financial Restrictions
  • House Arrest
  • Phone-Based Monitoring
  • Restraining Orders

Treatments

  • Treatments
  • Treatment Implementation Considerations
  • Anger Management
  • In-Patient & Out-Patient Treatment
  • Mental Health Screening and Evaluation
  • Substance Use Screening and Evaluation
  • Alcohol and Drug Use Education
  • Cognitive Behavioral Techniques

Motivation Techniques

  • Motivation Techniques
  • Motivational Techniques Implementation Considerations
  • Incentives
  • Prosocial Modeling
  • Sanctions

Additional Components

  • Additional Components
  • Additional Components Implementation Considerations
  • Environmental Restructuring
  • Transportation Resources

Additional Resources

  • Additional Resources
  • Additional Information on Practices
  • References

Glossary

  • Glossary
  • ACE!
  • Appropriateness Statement Package
  • Contacts

Frequency of Contact

Frequency of Contact – The evidence is inconclusive

 

Summary of the Evidence

  • The evidence in support of the effect of the frequency of contact on recidivism is inconclusive.
  • Contacts between officer and client are a vital part of evidence-based supervision.
  • The risk principle calls for increased contacts for individuals who are at higher risk of recidivism.
  • Increased contacts introduce more opportunities for intervention but also increase the level of surveillance on clients.
  • Increasing surveillance through frequency of contact can increase the number of technical violations detected.

 

What Is Frequency of Contact?

  • Evidence-based supervision calls for regular meetings between officer and client as a part of effective case management and supervision.
  • These contacts can come in many types (see types of contact statement for more information) and can occur with varying frequency (i.e., weekly, monthly, quarterly).
  • The risk principle within the RNR model calls for greater intervention for higher-risk clients and less intervention for low-risk clients.
  • More frequent contacts with their client gives officers more opportunity to gather information about the client’s life, build trust, ensure compliance to supervision conditions, and conduct cognitive-behavioral interventions with them.

How Is It Used?

  • Agency policy typically decides the frequency of contact.
  • Officers should use the results of a validated risk-needs assessment to determine how often they should regularly meet based on the level of risk and need of their client.
  • Typically, weekly contacts are recommended for the clients with the highest risk/need profiles.
    • Clients with high levels of non-criminogenic needs (i.e., housing, clothing, or food) may also require more frequent contact to assist in stabilizing their living situation.
  • The standard frequency of contact for clients with moderate risk/need profiles is monthly.
    • Many low-risk clients are placed on monthly contact at the outset to allow the officer to build rapport with them and ensure they start on the right track.
  • Quarterly contacts (once every three months) are typically reserved for low-risk clients who have established a track record of compliant behavior; these contacts are generally not face-to-face.

How Can It Be Used to Monitor Compliance?

  • Increasing the number of regularly scheduled contacts between officer and client increases the surveillance on that client and the demand on the client’s time, which can create conflicts with other obligations.
  • Increasing the frequency of contacts also increases an officer’s ability to check for a client’s compliance with supervision conditions.
  • Face-to-face contacts can be augmented by telephone contacts, Zoom calls, Facetime, etc.

How Can It Be Used as a Supervision Tool?

  • Evidence-based supervision calls for officers to use their regularly scheduled contact to build rapport and develop a strong working relationship with their clients.
  • Officers use their contacts with clients to supervise their client through effective case management techniques.
  • Increasing the frequency of contacts should not be done at the expense of the quality of those contacts. Contacts between officer and client should be marked by rapport-building techniques (i.e., respect, active listening, positive reinforcement).
  • Increasing the frequency of contacts between officer and client can offer more ability for officers to be familiar with the client’s life and provide resources to assist the client.
  • Increased number of contacts offers more ability for officers to detect troublesome behavior and intervene more quickly, potentially preventing criminal behavior or more serious supervision violations.
  • Reducing the frequency of contact with clients can be used as an incentive for compliant behavior.

What Are the Costs of Frequency of Contact?

  • The cost of frequency of contact for supervision staff and clients is measured in time.
    • Officers who have increased contacts with clients have less time for other job duties.
    • Clients often manage busy schedules in order to comply with their supervision conditions. Increasing contacts with them occupies their time, including time away from employment, and makes managing their schedules more difficult.
  • More frequency of contact increases a client’s transportation costs.

What Do Supervision Staff Think?

  • Supervision staff report that weekly contacts are
    • never appropriate for all low-risk clients and
    • always appropriate for all medium- to high-risk clients except those with serious mental illness or substance use disorder, for whom it is sometimes appropriate.
  • Supervision staff report that monthly contacts are
    • sometimes appropriate for all low-risk clients and
    • always appropriate for all medium- to high-risk clients, except those in the general violence or intimate partner violence special population, for whom they are sometimes appropriate.
  • Supervision staff report that quarterly contacts are
    • sometimes appropriate for all low-risk clients and
    • never appropriate for all medium- to high-risk clients.

What Should You Expect When Determining Frequency of Contact?

Client Outcomes

  • There is little empirical evidence that isolates the effect that the frequency of contact between officer and client can have on recidivism.
  • There is some evidence that increasing the frequency of contact while offering rehabilitative services (i.e., substance use treatment, mental health services) can reduce recidivism.
  • Increasing the frequency of contacts increases surveillance on the client, which has been shown to lead to more technical violations.

 

Is Frequency of Contact an Evidence-Based Practice?

  • No. The evidence in support of frequency of contact is inconclusive.
    • There are not evaluations that have isolated the effects of the varying frequencies of contact.

 

What Do People Formerly Involved in the Criminal Legal System Think About Frequency of Contact?

  • People with lived experience in the criminal legal system report that weekly contact is
    • never appropriate for all low-risk clients and
    • sometimes appropriate for all medium- to high-risk clients.
  • People with lived experience in the criminal legal system report that monthly contact is
    • sometimes appropriate for all low-risk clients and
    • sometimes appropriate for all medium- to high-risk clients
  • People with lived experience in the criminal legal system report that quarterly contact is
    • sometimes appropriate for all low-risk clients and
    • sometimes appropriate for all medium- to high-risk clients.

 

Communication That Strengthens the Officer-Client Relationship (Messaging)

  • Officers should communicate with clients to specify the frequency of their regular contact.
  • Officers should be transparent about the process of determining the frequency of regular contact.
  • When placing clients on weekly contact, officers should communicate how that level of contact will benefit their client during supervision.
  • When placing clients on weekly contact, officers should inform the client of the purpose of the frequency of contact—it’s not to catch the client doing something wrong.
  • The frequency of contact should be framed in terms of benefiting the client.

Special Considerations When Using Frequency of Contact With Subpopulations

Gang-Involved

Gang-involved clients are often considered to be more dangerous and placed at a higher risk level per department guidelines. If a client is placed on a higher risk level than their risk assessment would normally prescribe, the officer should initiate a conversation about the reasons for this decision.

General Violence

None

Intimate Partner Violence

IPV clients are more likely to have less criminal history than other special populations (e.g., general violence). Thus, IPV clients may be placed at a lower risk level and prescribed less frequent contact. Officers should always prioritize the protection of the victim, increasing the frequency of contact with a client who is a danger to their partner.

Serious Mental Illness

Clients with serious mental illnesses are more likely to have more complicated risk/needs profiles. Addressing these needs requires more intervention but officers should be wary of overwhelming their client by increasing the frequency of in-person contacts. Officers can use less time-intensive contacts (e.g., phone, Zoom, email) to stay up-to- date with their clients.

Substance Use Disorder

SUD clients are often mandated to undertake treatment services. Because of this, officers should be hesitant in increasing the frequency of contact in order to not overwhelm their clients. Officers can monitor clients’ participation in programming through collateral contacts or use less time-intensive contacts (e.g., phone, email) instead of making them come into the office more frequently.

 

Similar Topics

Types of Contacts

Prosocial Modeling

Section III: Building the Working Alliance

How do you feel about this topic?
Types of Contacts

Questions?

Use the form below to contact the team behind the Appropriateness Statement Package.

Invalid Email
Message failed. Please try again.

Thanks for your message! We’ll be in touch soon.

Connect with ACE!

And while we have your attention, this is a reminder to 1. carry naloxone, 2. don't keep it in your car bc that can expose it to extreme temperatures, and 3. support your local harm reduction orgs FDA approves over-the-counter Narcan. Here's what it means https://t.co/2zRV0BPp8J
  @Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE)

- 1 day ago

Follow ACE! on Twitter

Like ACE! on Facebook

Follow ACE! on LinkedIn

Subscribe to get emails from ACE! about important news and updates
!
!
Subscribe!
Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

E-mail: ace@gmu.edu

Phone: 703-993-4832

Fax: 703-993-6020

Search GMUACE.org:

GMU-Primary-Logo-FromBluetext-White

The Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence! (ACE!)
4400 University Drive
MSN 6D3
Fairfax, VA 22030

Contribute to ACE! Research

© 2020 The Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence! (ACE!). All Rights Reserved.

Scroll To Top