Program Evaluation PaperW5

Running Head: CASE STUDY 1

CASE STUDY 4

Week 2 CPSS400

By

[Name of Student]

Course

Professor

[Name of Institution]

January 24, 2019

Main components of the scenario

The current case study is based on the problem of a 23 years old women who is a mother, but she has been convicted of purse theft and keeping heroin. She has also been found to use heroin and intermittent alcohol use, but she denies to abuse of drugs. She is a mother of a four years old child, but her mother is taking the responsibility of taking care of the boy. Moreover, the irresponsible behavior of the Cassandra has resulted in the loss of job; she has denied the charges of drug abuse. Her presenting complaints are comprised of feelings of depression or anxiety that she has been facing, but she has not received any formal treatment for the issue she has reported. She has not been convicted of any violence to other or neither of suffering from mental disease.

Risks and Needs Assessment

In order to identify the risk and needs firstly it is important to separate the static and dynamic factors of the individual. Static factors are those factors that cannot be changed, and they would go along the life, in the current scenario the static factors are first theft and going to jail, the second static factor is the arrest on keeping the heroin. Now both these factors have been the reason of arrest in her life and cannot be changed. Now coming towards the dynamic risk factors that mean these are factors that can be changed or controlled by planning an intervention plan. The dynamic risk factors are also known as criminogenic needs. These factors are comprised of using heroin and intermittent use of alcohol. Next stealing and theft is the behavior that needs to be corrected through an intervention plan. Depression and anxiety are the feelings that are needed to be taken under consideration in detail that whether they are the cause of theft and drug abuse behavior or these are emerging as a result of the theft and drug abuse behavior. She is the mother of a four years son, but she has not been responsible for bringing up her son, now this status also needed to be changed in the sense of taking responsibility as she has been removed from her job because she has been not responsible enough to show up at the job. Her current age, her presented issues are all those factors that can be changed if managed through correctional intervention program (James , 2018).

The assessment of needs and risk are done in two ways based on the clinical assessment by the help of a mental health professional, psychologist or psychiatrists who are trained to assess the mental health condition of the offender in the context of the society and culture on the basis of their knowledge and the existing experience. Furthermore, the actuarial assessments are also an important part of the assessment that focusses on examining the behavior of offender and viewing how others have acted in those situations. The assessment is done through using the standardized inventories that are valid and reliable in order to complete the process of basement on an authentic and logical basis (LowenKamp & Latessa, 2004).

Relation of needs and risk with the treatment

The information that has been presented is related to the risks and needs of the Cassandra, her presented history has been helpful in identifying her current internal status that is based on the feeling of depression and anxiety, moreover her previous arrest, conviction, and release has provided any evidence that she has is need of help, her issues have not been resolved and she is not able to adjust according to norms and values appropriate for the society and her own personal life. Drug use is not a healthy habit, and she has denied the abuse of heroin and alcohol. There is a need for acceptance to move toward the correction of behavior. Her personal and professional life is disturbed due to her irresponsible behavior. Risks have been identified through the presented information. Moreover, the identified risks also play an important role in identifying the level of intervention that is necessary to deal with the risk. The needs that have been identified from the given information focuses on the perspective that dynamic risk factors are needed to be dealt with on an urgent basis. Hence the criminogenic needs are the essentials that can help to devise the invention plan to provide the goals to achieve for correctional invention program. The intervention plan would be designed on the basis of currently available risk and needs along with considering the ability of the individual to learn and adapt to the intervention program. The history cannot be altered now, but the risks and needs that have been identified in the case are the key identifiers for the areas of work.

References James , N. (2018). Risks and Needs assessment in Fedral prison system . Congressional Reserch Service , 1-18. LowenKamp, C. T., & Latessa, E. (2004). Understanding the risk principle, How and why correctional intervention can harm low-risk offenders. Topics in community corrections, 1-6.